Methylobacterium oryzae sp. nov., an aerobic, pink-pigmented, facultatively methylotrophic, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase-producing bacterium isolated from rice

1 Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Chungbuk 361-763, Republic of Korea 2 Microbial Genetics Division, National Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Rural Development Administration, Suwon 441-707, Republic of Korea Correspondence Tong-Min Sa tomsa{at}chungbuk.ac.kr A pink-pigmented, facultatively methylotrophic bacterium, strain CBMB20 T , isolated from stem tissues of rice, was analysed by a polyphasic approach. Strain CBMB20 T utilized 1-aminocyclopropane 1-carboxylate (ACC) as a nitrogen source and produced ACC deaminase. It was related phylogenetically to members of the genus Methylobacterium . 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that strain CBMB20 T was most closely related to Methylobacterium fujisawaense , Methylobacterium radiotolerans and Methylobacterium mesophilicum ; however, DNA–DNA hybridization values were less than 70 % with the type strains of these species. The DNA G+C content of strain CBMB20 T was 70.6 mol%. The study presents a detailed phenotypic characterization of strain CBMB20 T that allows its differentiation from other Methylobacterium species. In addition, strain CBMB20 T is the only known member of the genus Methylobacterium to be described from the phyllosphere of rice. Based on the data presented, strain CBMB20 T represents a novel species in the genus Methylobacterium , for which the name Methylobacterium oryzae sp. nov. is proposed, with strain CBMB20 T (=DSM 18207 T =LMG 23582 T =KACC 11585 T ) as the type strain. Abbreviations: ACC, 1-aminocyclopropane 1-carboxylate; PPFM, pink-pigmented, facultatively methylotrophic The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain CBMB20 T is AY683045 . Photomicrographs of strain CBMB20 T , 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity data and biochemical reactions that differentiate the novel strains from related species are available as supplementary material in IJSEM Online.