Sphingobacterium pakistanensis sp nov, a novel plant growth promoting rhizobacteria isolated from rhizosphere of Vigna mungo

The taxonomic status of a bacterium, strain NCCP-246 ^T , isolated from rhizosphere of Vigna mungo, was determined using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. The strain NCCP-246 ^T can grow at 16-37 C (optimum 32 C), at pH ranges of 6-8 (optimum growth occurs at pH 7) and in 0-4 % (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis based upon on 16S rRNA gene sequence comparison revealed that strain NCCP-246 ^T belonged to genus Sphingobacterium. Strain NCCP-246 ^T showed highest similarity to the type strain of Sphingobacterium canadense CR11 ^T (97.67 %) and less than 97 % with other species of the genus. The DNA-DNA relatedness value of strain NCCP-246 ^T with S. canadense CR11 ^T and Sphingobacterium thalpophilum JCM 21153 ^T was 55 and 44.4 %, respectively. The chemotaxonomic data revealed the major menaquinone as MK-7 and dominant cellular fatty acids were summed feature 3 [C _16:1 ω7c/C _16:1 ω6c] (37.07 %), iso-C _15:0 (28.03 %), C _16:0 (11.85 %), C _17:0 cyclo (8.84 %) and C _14:0 (2.42 %). The G+C content of the strain was 39.2 mol%. On the basis of DNA-DNA hybridization, phylogenetic analyses, physiological and, biochemical data, strain NCCP-246 ^T can be differentiated from the validly named members of genus Sphingobacterium and thus represents as a new species, for which the name, Sphingobacterium pakistanensis sp nov is proposed with the type strain NCCP-246 ^T (= JCM18974 ^T = KCTC 23914 ^T ).