Paenibacillus rhizolycopersici sp. nov., an oligotrophic bacterium isolated from a tomato plant in China.

A Gram-positive, rod-shaped, motile, endospore-forming strain, DXFW5 ^T , was isolated from the rhizosphere soil of tomato. Strain DXFW5 ^T grew at 20-50 °C (optimum, 25-37 °C), pH 5-8 (optimum, pH 7) and in the presence of 3 % NaCl. It was positive for catalase and oxidase. Phylogenetic analysis using 16S rRNA gene sequences showed this strain was most closely related to Paenibacillus timonensis DSM 16943 ^T (98.0 %) and Paenibacillus barengoltzii DSM 22255 ^T (97.4 %). The DNA G+C content was 52.9 mol%. The digital DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain DXFW5 ^T and P. timonensis DSM 16943 ^T , P. barengoltzii DSM 22255 ^T and P. macerans DSM 24 ^T were 33.1, 24.9 and 21.2 %, respectively. The average nucleotide identity values between strain DXFW5 ^T and P. timonensis DSM 16943 ^T , P. barengoltzii DSM 22255 ^T and P. macerans DSM 24 ^T were 86.93, 81.77 and 75.98 %, respectively. The major fatty acids were anteiso-C _15 : 0 (55.1 %), iso-C _16 : 0 (13.2 %) and C _16 : 0 (10 %). The polar lipids of strain DXFW5 ^T consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine two unidentified phospholipids and three unidentified lipids. MK-7 was the major isoprenoid quinone. Based on these results, it was concluded that the isolate represents a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus rhizolycopersici sp. nov. is proposed, with DXFW5 ^T (=ACCC 61751 ^T =JCM 34488 ^T ) as the type strain.