Pectobacterium jejuense sp. nov. Isolated from Cucumber Stem Tissue

A single Pectobacterium-like strain named 13-115^T was isolated from a specimen of diseased cucumber stem tissue collected on Jeju Island, South Korea. The strain presented a rod-like shape and was negative for Gram staining. When grown on R2A medium at 25 °C, strain 13-115^T formed round, convex and white colonies. This strain showed growth at temperatures ranging from 10 to 30 °C and tolerated a pH range of 6-9. The strain could also tolerate NaCl concentrations up to 5%. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that strain 13-115^T exhibited similarity of over 99% with Pectobacterium brasiliense, P. carotovorum, P. polaris, and P. parvum. By conducting multilocus sequence analyses using dnaX, leuS, and recA genes, a separate phylogenetic lineage was discovered between strain 13-115^T and other members of the genus Pectobacterium. Moreover, the strain showed relatively low in silico DNA-DNA hybridization (<60.6%) and average nucleotide identity (ANI) (<94.9%) values with recognized Pectobacterium species. The isolate has a genome size of 5,069,478 bp and a genomic G + C content of 52.04 mol%. Major fatty acids identified in the strain included C_16:0 (28.99%), summed feature 3 (C_16:1 ω7c and/or C_16:1 ω6c; 28.85%), and C_18:1 ω7c (19.01%). Pathogenicity assay confirmed that the novel strain induced soft rot symptoms in cucumber plants and Koch's postulates were fulfilled. Molecular analysis and phenotypic data indicated that strain 13-115^T could be classified as a new species within the Pectobacterium genus, which has been named Pectobacterium jejuense. The type strain is 13-115^T (= KCTC 92800^T = JCM 35940^T).