Pedobacter namyangjuensis sp. nov. isolated from soil and reclassification of Nubsella zeaxanthinifaciens Asker et al. 2008 as Pedobacter zeaxanthinifaciens comb. nov.

A Gram-stain-negative, non-motile, strictly aerobic, yellow-pigmented bacterium, designated strain 5G38^T, was isolated from a field cultivated with Chinese cabbage in Korea. The strain grew at 5–40°C and at pH 6.0–8.0. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that strain 5G38^T represented a distinct lineage within the family Sphingobacteriaceae and showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 95.2% with Pedobacter koreensis WPCB189^T, followed by Pedobacter agri PB92^T (94.6%), Pedobacter suwonensis 15–52^T (94.4%), Pedobacter rhizosphaerae 01–96^T (94.4%), Pedobacter sandarakinus DS-27^T (94.4%), and Nubsella zeaxanthinifaciens TDMA-5^T (94.3%). Strain 5G38^T formed monophyletic clade with Nubsella zeaxanthinifaciens in the cluster comprised of species of the genus Pedobacter. Chemotaxonomic characteristics of the novel strains, including DNA G+C content of genomic DNA (37.0 mol%), the predominant respiratory quinine (MK-7), and the major fatty acids which were iso-C_15:0, summed feature 3 (comprising C_16:1 ω7c and/or iso-C_15:0 2-OH) and iso-C_17:0 3-OH, are similar to those of the genus Pedobacter. However, the novel strains can be distinguished from the other species of Pedobacter by physiological properties. The name Pedobacter namyangjuensis sp. nov. is therefore proposed for strain 5G38^T (KACC 13938^T =NBRC 107692^T) as the type strain. Furthermore, the reclassification of Nubsella zeaxanthinifaciens as Pedobacter zeaxanthinifaciens comb. nov. is proposed.