Niastella soli sp. nov., isolated from rhizospheric soil of a persimmon tree

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, motile and rod-shaped novel bacterial strain, designated MAH-29^T, was isolated from rhizospheric soil of a persimmon tree. The colonies were light pink coloured, smooth, spherical and 0.1-0.8 mm in diameter when grown on Reasoner's 2A (R2A) agar for 2 days. Strain MAH-29^T was able to grow at 20-37 °C, at pH 5.0-8.5 and at 0-2.0 % NaCl. Cell growth occurred on nutrient agar and R2A agar. The strain was positive in both oxidase and catalase tests. According to the 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons, the isolate was identified as a member of the genus Niastella and was closely related to Niastella vici DJ57^T (97.7 % similarity), Niastella koreensis GR20-10^T (97.1 %) and Niastella yeongjuensis GR20-13^T (97.0 %). Strain MAH-29^T has a draft genome size of 8 876 333 bp (31 contigs), annotated with 6920 protein-coding genes, 61 tRNA and four rRNA genes. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain MAH-29^T and three closely related type strains were in the range of 78.2-83.2 % and 22.1-27.0 %, respectively. The genomic DNA G+C content was 43.8 mol%. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was menaquinone 7. The major fatty acids were identified as iso-C_15:0, iso-C_15:1 G and iso-C_17:0 3OH. On the basis of DNA-DNA hybridization results, genotypic analysis and chemotaxonomic and physiological data, strain MAH-29^T represents a novel species within the genus Niastella, for which the name Niastella soli sp. nov. is proposed, with MAH-29^T (=KACC 19969^T=CGMCC 1.16606^T) as the type strain.