Edaphobacter flagellatus sp. nov. and Edaphobacter bradus sp. nov., two acidobacteria isolated from forest soil

Two aerobic and obligately acidophilic bacteria, designated HZ411^T and 4MSH08^T, were isolated from the forest soil of Dinghushan Biosphere Reserve, Guangdong Province, PR China (23° 10' N, 112° 31' E). These two strains were Gram-stain-negative short rods that multiplied by binary division. HZ411^T was motile, with a single polar flagellum, but 4MSH08^T was non-motile. The results of the 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that these two strains formed a common clade with members of the genusEdaphobacterin subdivision 1 of the phylum Acidobacteria but they each occupied a unique position in the genus. HZ411^T and 4MSH08^T had a 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 96.2 % between each other and the highest sequence similarity of 97.7 and 96.9 % to Edaphobacter modestusJbg-1^T and Edaphobacter aggregansWbg-1^T, respectively. The DNA-DNA hybridization rate between HZ411^T and E. modestusJbg-1^T was 22.7 %. The DNA G+C contents of HZ411^T and 4MSH08^T were 57.7 and 59.3 %, respectively. HZ411^T and 4MSH08^T had similar major (>10 %) fatty acids with very high percentages of iso-C15 : 0 and C16 : 1ω7c, and similar major polar lipid profiles (both contained a phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidyldimethylethanolamine and glycolipid and several unidentified aminolipids and polar lipids). On the basis of these physiological, phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic data, we suggest that HZ411^T and 4MSH08^T represent two novel species of the genus Edaphobacter, for which the names Edaphobacter flagellatus HZ411^T (=GDMCC 1.1193=LMG 30085) and Edaphobacter bradus 4MSH08^T (=GDMCC 1.1317=KCTC 62475) are proposed.