Description of Flavobacterium agricola sp. nov., an auxin producing bacterium isolated from paddy field

An auxin-producing bacterial strain, CC-SYL302^T, was isolated from paddy soil in Taiwan and identified using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. The cells were observed to be aerobic, non-motile, non-spore-forming rods, and tested positive for catalase and oxidase. Produced carotenoid but flexirubin-type pigments were absent. Optimal growth of strain CC-SYL302^T was observed at 25 °C, pH 7.0, and with 2% (w/v) NaCl present. Based on analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences, it was determined that strain CC-SYL302^T belongs to the genus Flavobacterium of the Flavobacteriaceae family. The closest known relatives of this strain are F. tangerinum YIM 102701-2 ^T (with 93.3% similarity) and F. cucumis R2A45-3 ^T (with 93.1% similarity). Digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) values were calculated to assess the genetic distance between strain CC-SYL302^T and its closest relatives, with mean values of 21.3% for F. tangerinum and 20.4% for F. cucumis. Strain CC-SYL302^T exhibited the highest orthologous average nucleotide identity (OrthoANI) values with members of the Flavobacterium genus, ranging from 67.2 to 72.1% (n = 22). The dominating cellular fatty acids (> 5%) included iso-C_14:0, iso-C_15:0, iso-C_16:0, iso-C_15:0 3-OH, iso-C_17:0 3-OH, C_16:1 ω6c/C_16:1 ω7c and C_16:0 10-methyl/iso-C_17:1 ω9c. The polar lipid profile consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified aminolipid, an unidentified aminophospholipid, and nine unidentified polar lipids. The genome (2.7 Mb) contained 33.6% GC content, and the major polyamines were putrescine and sym-homospermidine. Strain CC-SYL302^T exhibits distinct phylogenetic, phenotypic, and chemotaxonomic characteristics, as well as unique results in comparative analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequence, OrthoANI, dDDH, and phylogenomic placement. Therefore, it is proposed that this strain represents a new species of the Flavobacterium genus, for which the name Flavobacterium agricola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CC-SYL302^T (= BCRC 81320 ^T = JCM 34764 ^T).