Sphingomonas cremea sp. nov., isolated from ginseng soil.

A novel Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped, non-motile, cream-coloured strain (G124 ^T ) was isolated from ginseng soil collected in Yeongju, Republic of Korea. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain G124 ^T belongs to a distinct lineage within the genus Sphingomonas (family Sphingomonadaceae , order Sphingomonadales and class Alphaproteobacteria ). Strain G124 ^T was closely related to Sphingomonas rhizophila THG-T61 ^T (98.5 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), Sphingomonas mesophila SYSUP0001 ^T (98.3 %), Sphingomonas edaphi DAC4 ^T (97.6 %) and Sphingomonas jaspsi TDMA-16 ^T (97.6 %). The strain contained ubiquinone 10 as the major respiratory quinone. The major polar lipid profile of strain G124 ^T comprised phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine and sphingoglycolipids. The predominant cellular fatty acids of strain G124 ^T were summed feature 8 (C _18 : 1  ω 7 c /C _18 : 1  ω 6 c ; 33.4 %), summed feature 3 (C _16 : 1  ω 6 c /C _16 : 1  ω 7 c ; 27.2 %) and C _16 : 0 (18.3 %). The genome size of strain G124 ^T was 2 549 305 bp. The genomic DNA G+C content is 62.0 mol%. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain G124 ^T and other Sphingomonas species were in the range of 71.2-75.9 % and 18.7-19.9 %, respectively. Based on the polyphasic analysis such as biochemical, phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, strain G124 ^T represents a novel species of the genus Sphingomonas , for which the name Sphingomonas cremea sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is G124 ^T (=KACC 21691 ^T =LMG 31729 ^T ).