Sphingomonas deserti sp. nov., isolated from Mu Us Sandy Land soil

A Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped bacterium, designated as strain GL-C-18^T, was isolated from soil sample collected at Mu Us Sandy Land, China, and its taxonomic position was investigated using a polyphasic approach. Growth was observed in the presence of 0-1 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0 %), pH 6.0-9.0 (optimum, pH 7.0-8.0) and 20-37 °C. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, strain GL-C-18^T belonged to the family Sphingomonadaceae and was most closely related to Sphingosinicella vermicomposti YC7378^T (95.7 %), Sphingomonas oligophenolica S213^T (95.0 %) and Sphingobium boeckii 301^T (94.8 %). The draft genome of strain GL-C-18^T was 6.09 Mb, and the G+C content was 66.0 %. The average nucleotide identity value to Sphingosinicella vermicomposti YC7378^T was 83.7 %. The predominant respiratory quinone was Q-10. The major fatty acids were C18 : 1ω7c, summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c), C16:0 and C14 : 0 2OH. The main polar lipids were sphingoglycolipid, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylcholine. On the basis of chemotaxonomic, phylogenetic and phenotypic evidence, strain GL-C-18^T represents a novel species of the genus Sphingomonas, for which the name Sphingomonasdeserti sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is GL-C-18^T (=ACCC 60076^T=KCTC 62411^T).