Rhizobium ipomoeae sp. nov., isolated from a water convolvulus field

A bacterial strain, designated shin9-1T, was isolated from a water sample taken from a water convolvulus field in Taiwan and characterized using a polyphasic taxonomical approach. Cells of strain shin9-1T were aerobic, Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped and surrounded by a thick capsule and formed cream-coloured colonies. Growth occurred at 10-45 °C (optimum, 30 °C), with 0-3.0% NaCl (optimum, 0.5%) and at pH 7.0-9.0 (optimum, pH 7.0). Strain shin9-1T did not form nodules on a legume plant, Macroptilium atropurpureum, and the nodulation genes nodA, nodC and the nitrogenase reductase gene nifH were not detected by PCR. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA and three housekeeping gene sequences (recA, atpD and rpoB) showed that strain shin9-1T belonged to the genus Rhizobium. Strain shin9-1T had the highest level of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with respect to Rhizobium daejeonense L61T (97.6 %). The major fatty acid of strain shin9-1T was C18:1ω7c. The polar lipid profile consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine and several uncharacterized lipids. The DNA G+C content was 58.3 mol%. The DNA-DNA relatedness of strain shin9-1T with respect to recognized species of the genus Rhizobium was less than 70%. Phenotypic characteristics of the novel strain also differed from those of the most closely related species of the genus Rhizobium. On the basis of the phylogenetic inference and phenotypic data, strain shin9-1T should be classified as a representative of a novel species, for which the name Rhizobium ipomoeae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is shin9-1T (=LMG 27163T=KCTC 32148T).