Solirubrobacter taibaiensis sp. nov., isolated from a stem of Phytolacca acinosa Roxb

A white-coloured bacterium, designated strain GTJR-20ᵀ, was isolated from a stem of Phytolacca acinosa Roxb. collected from Taibai Mountain in Shaanxi Province, north-west China, and was subjected to a taxonomic study by using a polyphasic approach. The novel isolate was found to grow optimally at 28–30 °C, at pH 7.5–8.0 and in the absence of NaCl. Cells were observed to be Gram-stain positive, strictly aerobic, rod-shaped and non-motile. The predominant respiratory quinone was identified as MK-7(H₄) and the major cellular fatty acids were identified as iso-C₁₆:₀ (35.8 %), C₁₈:₁ ω9c (17.7 %), C₁₇:₁ ω6c (11.0 %), C₁₇:₁ ω8c (7.8 %) and C₁₈:₃ ω6c (6, 9, 12) (7.2 %). The DNA G+C content was determined to be 71.6 mol %. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain GTJR-20ᵀ is a member of the genus Solirubrobacter and is closely related to Solirubrobacter phytolaccae GTGR-8ᵀ (16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, 98.4 %), Solirubrobacter soli KCTC 12628ᵀ (97.8 %), Solirubrobacter pauli KCTC 9974ᵀ (97.7 %) and Solirubrobacter ginsenosidimutans KCTC 19420ᵀ (97.6 %). No other recognized bacterial species showed more than 94.6 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to the novel isolate. DNA–DNA relatedness values for strain GTJR-20ᵀ with respect to its closely related neighbours S. phytolaccae GTGR-8ᵀ, S. soli KCTC 12628ᵀ, S. pauli KCTC 9974ᵀ and S. ginsenosidimutans KCTC 19420ᵀ were 48.3 ± 8.6, 21.3 ± 5.2, 36.8 ± 6.2 and 36.0 ± 5.5 %, respectively. Based on the phenotypic, phylogenetic and genotypic data, strain GTJR-20ᵀ is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Solirubrobacter, for which the name Solirubrobacter taibaiensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is GTJR-20ᵀ (=CCTCC AB 2013308ᵀ = KCTC 29222ᵀ).