Jiella endophytica sp. nov., a novel endophytic bacterium isolated from root of Ficus microcarpa Linn. f.

A Gram-negative, aerobic, short rodshaped, asporogenous bacterium, designated CBS5Q-3 ^T , was isolated from a surface-sterilised root of Ficus microcarpa Linn. f. collected from Guangxi, China and investigated by a polyphasic approach to determine its taxonomic position. Strain CBS5Q-3 ^T was found to grow optimally with 2% (w/v) NaCl at 30 °C, pH 7.0-8.0. Substrate mycelia and aerial mycelia were not formed, and no diffusible pigments were observed on the media tested. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain CBS5Q-3 ^T is closely related to species of genus Jiella and shares high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 98.1% with Jiella aquimaris JCM 30119 ^T . The average nucleotide identity and in silico DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain CBS5Q-3 ^T and J. aquimaris JCM 30119 ^T were 82.8% and 26.0%, respectively. The DNA G + C content of strain CBS5Q-3 ^T was determined to be 66.5 mol %. The cell wall peptidoglycan was found to contain meso-diaminopimelic acid and ubiquinone Q-10 identified as the respiratory lipoquinone. The polar lipids were found to be comprised of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine, phosphatidylethanolamine and three unidentified aminolipids, while the major fatty acids were identified as C _18:1 ω7c and cyclo-C _19:0 ω8c. On the basis of phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and phenotypic data, strain CBS5Q-3 ^T can be concluded to represent a novel species of the genus Jiella, for which the name Jiella endophytica sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CBS5Q-3 ^T (= JCM 33167 ^T  = CGMCC 1.13863 ^T ).