<Emphasis Type="Italic">Sphingorhabdus buctiana</Emphasis> sp. nov., isolated from fresh water,and reclassification of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Sphingopyxis contaminans</Emphasis> as <Emphasis Type="Italic">Sphingorhabdus contaminans</Emphasis> comb. nov.

A Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic, non-motile and rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated T5^T, was isolated from the Chishui River in Maotai town, Guizhou Province, Southwest of China. Strain T5^T was found to grow optimally at pH 9.0 and 25 °C. The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that strain T5^T belongs to the family Sphingomonadaceae within the phylum Proteobacteria; the strain T5^T clustered with the type strains of Sphingopyxis contaminans, Sphingorhabdus wooponensis and Sphingorhabdus rigui, with which it exhibits 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values of 96.2–96.9%. The DNA G+C content was 58.5 mol%. The major respiratory quinone was Q-10 and the major polar lipid was phosphatidylethanolamine. The major polyamine was homospermidine and the major fatty acids were C_18:1 ω7c (37.5%) and C_16:1 ω7c (30.1%). On the basis of phylogenetic, phenotypic and genetic data, strain T5^T represents a novel species of the genus Sphingorhabdus, for which the name Sphingorhabdus buctiana sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is T5^T (= CGMCC 1.12929^T = JCM 30114^T). It is also proposed that Sphingopyxis contaminans should be reclassified as a member of the genus Sphingorhabdus.