Cupriavidus agavae sp. nov., a species isolated from Agave L. rhizosphere in northeast Mexico

During the isolation of bacteria from the Agave L. rhizosphere in northeast Mexico, four strains with similar BOX-PCR patterns were collected. The 16S rRNA gene sequences of all four strains were very similar to each other and that of the type strains of Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34 T (98.49 % sequence similarity) and Cupriavidus necator N-1 T (98.35 %). The genome of strain ASC-9842 T was sequenced and compared to those of other Cupriavidus species. ANIb and ANIm values with the most closely related species were lower than 95%, while the in silico DNA–DNA hybridization values were also much lower than 70 %, consistent with the proposal that they represent a novel species. This conclusion was supported by additional phenotypic and chemotaxonomic analyses. Therefore, the name Cupriavidus agavae sp. nov. is proposed with the type strain ASC-9842 T (=LMG 26414 T =CIP 110327 T ).