Sphingobacterium endophyticum sp. nov., a novel endophyte isolated from halophyte

A bacterial strain designated NYYP31 T was isolated from the leaves of an annual halophytes, Suaeda corniculata Bunge, collected from the southern edge of the Gurbantunggut desert, north-west China. Strain NYYP31 T was Gram-staining negative, strictly aerobic, rod-shaped, non-motile, and non-spore-forming. Growth was observed at 4–42 °C, at pH 5.0–10.0, in the presence of up to 8% (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences and coding sequences of 92 protein clusters showed that strain NYYP31 T should be assigned to the genus Sphingobacterium . 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity analysis showed that strain NYYP31 T was most closely related to the type strain of Sphingobacterium daejeonense (97.9%) and Sphingobacterium lactis (97.7%). The predominant isoprenoid quinone was MK-7. The major fatty acids were identified as iso-C 15:0 , iso-C 17:0 3-OH and summed feature 3 (C 16:1 ω7c and/or C 16:1 ω6c ). The polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified phospholipids, three unidentified lipids, three unidentified amino phospholipids, and two unidentified glycolipids. The genomic DNA G + C content was 36.4 mol%. The average nucleotide identity (ANI) values for strain NYYP31 T to the type strains of S. daejeonense and S. lactis were 77.9 and 74.1%, respectively, which were below the cut-off level (95–96%) for species delineation. Based on the above results, strain NYYP31 T represents a novel species of the genus Sphingobacterium , for which the name Sphingobacterium endophyticum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NYYP31 T (= CGMCC 1.16979 T = NBRC 114258 T ).