Pedobacter boryungensis sp. nov., isolated from soil

A Gram-negative, non-sporulating, non-flagellated rod, designated BR-9 ^T, was isolated from soil collected on the Korean peninsula. Strain BR-9 ^T grew optimally at pH 6.0-7.0, at 30 °C and in the absence of NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain BR-9 ^T belonged to the genus Pedobacter and clustered with Pedobacter insulae DS-139T and Pedobacter koreensis WPCB189 ^T. Strain BR-9 ^T exhibited 98.2 and 97.5% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with P. insulae DS-139 ^T and P. koreensis WPCB189 ^T, respectively, and < 96.7% sequence similarity with the type strains of other species in the genus Pedobacter. Strain BR-9 ^T contained MK-7 as the predominant menaquinone and iso-C _{15: 0} and summed feature 3 (C _16:1 ω7c and/or iso-C _15:0 2-OH) as the major fatty acids. The DNA G+C content of strain BR-9 ^T was 38.5 mol%. DNA-DNA relatedness between strain BR-9 ^T and P. insulae DS-139 ^T and P. koreensis KCTC 12536 ^T was 3.4-4.2 %, which indicated that the isolate was genetically distinct from these type strains. Strain BR-9 ^T was also distinguishable by differences in phenotypic properties. On the basis of the data presented, strain BR-9 ^T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Pedobacter, for which the name Pedobacter boryungensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is BR-9 ^T (=KCTC 23344 ^T =CCUG 60024 ^T).