Sphingopyxis panaciterrae sp. nov., isolated from soil from ginseng field.

A Gram-negative, strictly aerobic, motile bacterial strain, designated Gsoil 124T, was isolated from a soil sample taken from a ginseng field in Pocheon Province (South Korea). The isolate contained Q-10 as the predominant lipoquinone, plus C18:1 7c and summed feature 4 (C16:1 6c and/or iso- C15:0 2-OH) as the major fatty acids. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 68.1 mol%, and the major polar lipids consisted of sphingoglycolipid, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, and phosphatidylethanolamine. A comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain Gsoil 124T was most closely related to Sphingopyxis chilensis (98.7%), Sphingopyxis alaskensis (98.2%), Sphingopyxis witflariensis (98.2%), Sphingopyxis taejonensis (98.0%), and Sphingopyxis macrogoltabida (97.6%). However, the DNA-DNA relatedness between strain Gsoil 124T and its phylogenetically closest neighbors was less than 22%. Thus, on the basis of its phenotypic properties and phylogenetic distinctiveness, strain Gsoil 124T should be classified as representing a novel species in the genus Sphingopyxis, for which the name Sphingopyxis panaciterrae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Gsoil 124T (=KCTC 12580T=LMG 24003T).