Mesorhizobium thiogangeticum sp. nov., a novel sulfur-oxidizing chemolithoautotroph from rhizosphere soil of an Indian tropical leguminous plant.

The bacterial strain SJT(T), along with 15 other mesophilic, neutrophilic and facultatively sulfur-oxidizing chemolithotrophic isolates, was isolated by enrichment on reduced sulfur compounds as the sole energy and electron source from soils immediately adjacent to the roots of Clitoria ternatea, a slender leguminous herb of the Lower Gangetic plains of India. Strain SJT(T) was able to oxidize thiosulfate and elemental sulfur for chemolithoautotrophic growth. 16S rRNA and recA gene sequence-based phylogenetic analyses showed that the Gram-negative rod-shaped bacterium belonged to the genus Mesorhizobium and was most closely related to Mesorhizobium loti, Mesorhizobium plurifarium, Mesorhizobium amorphae and Mesorhizobium chacoense. Unequivocally low 16S rRNA (<97 %) and recA (< or =88 %) gene sequence similarities to all existing species of the most closely related genera, a unique fatty acid profile, a distinct G+C content (59.6 mol%) and phenotypic characteristics all suggested that strain SJT(T) represents a novel species. DNA-DNA hybridization and SDS-PAGE analysis of whole-cell proteins also confirmed the taxonomic uniqueness of SJT(T). It is therefore proposed that isolate SJT(T) (= LMG 22697T = MTCC 7001T) be classified as the type strain of a novel species, Mesorhizobium thiogangeticum sp. nov.