Sphingomonas rosea sp. nov. and Sphingomonas swuensis sp. nov., rosy colored β-glucosidase-producing bacteria isolated from soil.

Two strains PB196(T) and PB62(T) of Gram-negative, non-motile, and non-spore-forming bacteria, were isolated from soil in South Korea and characterized to determine their taxonomic positions. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that the two strains belonged to the genus Sphingomonas. The highest degree of sequence similarity of strain PB196(T) was found with PB62(T) (98.9%), Sphingomonas humi PB323(T) (98.9%), Sphingomonas kaistensis PB56(T) (98.2%), and Sphingomonas astaxanthinifaciens TDMA-17(T) (98.0%). The highest degree of sequence similarity of strain PB62(T) was found with Sphingomonas humi PB323(T) (98.8%), Sphingomonas astaxanthinifaciens TDMA-17(T) (98.2%), and Sphingomonas kaistensis PB56(T) (98.1%). Chemotaxonomic data revealed that they possessed ubiquinone-10 (Q-10) as common in the genus Sphingomonas, that the predominant fatty acids were summed feature 7 (C(18:1) ω7c/ω9t/ω12t), summed feature 4 (C(16:1) ω7c/C(15:0) iso 2OH), C(16:0), and C(17:1) ω6c, and that they contained sphingoglycolipid, phosphatidylglycerol (PG), and phosphatidyle-thanolamine (PE) in common but they showed difference for diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG). Based on these data, PB196(T) (=KCTC 12339(T) =JCM 16604(T)) and PB62(T) (=KCTC 12336(T) =JCM 16605(T) =KEMB 9004-005(T)) should be classified as type strains of two novel species, for which the names Sphingomonas rosea sp. nov. and Sphingomonas swuensis sp. nov. are proposed, respectively.