Sphingobium vermicomposti sp. nov., isolated from vermicompost.

Strain VC-230(T) was isolated from homemade vermicompost produced from kitchen waste. The isolate was a Gram-negative-staining, catalase- and oxidase-positive, motile rod-shaped bacterium able to grow at 15-37 degrees C and pH 6-8. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain VC-230(T) was determined to belong to the family Sphingomonadaceae by its clustering with type strains of the genus Sphingobium, with Sphingobium chlorophenolicum ATCC 33790(T) (97.7 %) and Sphingobium herbicidovorans DSM 11019(T) (97.4 %) as its closest neighbours. The polar lipid pattern, the presence of spermidine and ubiquinone 10, the predominance of the cellular fatty acids C(18 : 1)omega7c/9t/12t, C(16 : 1)omega7c and C(16 : 0) and the G+C content of the genomic DNA supported the affiliation of this organism to the genus Sphingobium. The phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic, phenotypic and DNA-DNA hybridization analyses verify that strain VC-230(T) represents a novel species, for which the name Sphingobium vermicomposti sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is VC-230(T) (=CCUG 55809(T) =DSM 21299(T)).