Rhizobium pseudoryzae sp. nov., isolated from the rhizosphere of rice.

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain J3-A127(T), was isolated from the roots of fresh rice plants (Oryza sativa). Cells were non-motile and no flagellum was detected. Comparison of 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that the strain was phylogenetically related to species of the genus Rhizobium, with closest similarity to Rhizobium oryzae Alt 505(T) (96.4 %). The low levels of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (<90 %) found between the gyrB, atpD, recA and glnII gene sequences of strain J3-A127(T) and the type strains of recognized species of the genus Rhizobium also indicated that it represented a separate species. The temperature range for growth was 10-40 °C (optimum around 28 °C) and the pH range was 6.0-11.0 (optimum pH 7.0-8.0). Strain J3-A127(T) tolerated NaCl concentrations up to 5.0 % (w/v). The strain was catalase- and oxidase-positive. The main cellular fatty acids were summed feature 8 (C(18 : 1)ω7c and/or C(18 : 1)ω6; 46.7 %). The DNA G+C content of strain J3-A127(T) was 59.5 mol%. Strain J3-A127(T) did not form any nodules on four different legumes and the nodD and nifH genes were not detected by PCR. According to physiological and biochemical characteristics and genotypic data, strain J3-A127(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Rhizobium, for which the name Rhizobium pseudoryzae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is J3-A127(T) ( = ACCC 10380(T) = KCTC 23294(T)).