Methylobacterium pseudosasae sp. nov., a pink-pigmented, facultatively methylotrophic bacterium isolated from the bamboo phyllosphere

A pink-pigmented, Gram negative, aerobic, facultatively methylotrophic bacterium, strain BL44^T, was isolated from bamboo leaves and identified as a member of the genus Methylobacterium. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed similarity values of 98.7–97.0 % with closely related type strains and showed highest similarity to Methylobacterium zatmanii DSM 5688^T (98.7 %) and Methylobacterium thiocyanatum DSM 11490^T (98.7 %). Methylotrophic metabolism in this strain was confirmed by PCR amplification and sequencing of the mxaF gene coding for the α-subunit of methanol dehydrogenase. Strain BL44^T produced three known quorum sensing signal molecules with similar retention time to C₈, C₁₀ and C₁₂-HSLs when characterized by GC–MS. The fatty acid profiles contained major amounts of C_18:1 ω7c, iso-3OH C_17:0 and summed feature 3 (C_16:1 ω7c and/or iso-C_15:0 2-OH), which supported the grouping of the isolate in the genus Methylobacterium. The DNA G+C content was 66.9 mol%. DNA relatedness of the strain BL44^T to its most closely related strains ranged from 12–43.3 %. On the basis of the phenotypic, phylogenetic and DNA–DNA hybridization data, strain BL44^T is assigned to a novel species of the genus Methylobacterium for which the name Methylobacterium pseudosasae sp. nov. is proposed (type strain BL44^T = NBRC 105205^T = ICMP 17622^T).