Pseudomonas floridensis sp. nov., a bacterial pathogen isolated from tomato

An unusual fluorescent pseudomonad was isolated from tomato exhibiting leaf spot symptoms similar to bacterial speck. Strains were fluorescent, oxidase- and arginine-dihydrolase-negative, elicited a hypersensitive reaction on tobacco and produced a soft rot on potato slices. However, the strains produced an unusual yellow, mucoid growth on media containing 5 % sucrose that is not typical of levan. Based on multilocus sequence analysis using 16S rRNA, gap1, gltA, gyrB and rpoD, these strains formed a distinct phylogenetic group in the genus Pseudomonas and were most closely related to Pseudomonas viridiflava within the Pseudomonassyringae complex. Whole-genome comparisons, using average nucleotide identity based on blast, of representative strain GEV388^T and publicly available genomes representing the genus Pseudomonas revealed phylogroup 7 P. viridiflava strain UASW0038 and P. viridiflava type strain ICMP 2848^T as the closest relatives with 86.59 and 86.56 % nucleotide identity, respectively. In silico DNA-DNA hybridization using the genome-to-genome distance calculation method estimated 31.1 % DNA relatedness between GEV388^T and P. viridiflava ATCC 13223^T, strongly suggesting the strains are representatives of different species. These results together with Biolog GEN III tests, fatty acid methyl ester profiles and phylogenetic analysis using 16S rRNA and multiple housekeeping gene sequences demonstrated that this group represents a novel species member of the genus Pseudomonas. The name Pseudomonas floridensis sp. nov. is proposed with GEV388^T (=LMG 30013^T=ATCC TSD-90^T) as the type strain.