Novel aerobic pink-pigmented facultative, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase producing Methylobacterium oryzae sp. nov. isolated from rice.

A pink%pigmented, facultatively methylotrophic bact erium, strain CBMB20 T , isolated from stem tissues of rice, was analysed by a polyphasic approach. Strain CBMB20 T utilized 1%aminocyclopropane%1%carboxylate (ACC) as a nitrogen source and produced ACC deaminase. It was related phylogenetically to members of the genus Methylobacterium . 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that strain CBMB20 T was most closely related to Methylobacterium fujisawaense , Methylobacterium radiotolerans and Methylobacterium mesophilicum ; however, DNA–DNA hybridization values were less than 70% with the type strains of these species. The DNA G +C content of strain CBMB20 T was 70.6 mol%. The study presents a detailed phenotypic characterization of strain CBMB20 T that allows its differentiation from other Methylobacterium species. In addition, strain CBMB20 T is the only known member of the genus Methylobacterium to be described from the phyllosphere of rice. Based on the data presented, strain CBMB20 T represents a novel species in the genus Methylobacterium , for which the name Methylobacterium oryzae sp. nov. is proposed, with strain CBMB20 T (=DSM 18207 T =LMG 23582 T =KACC 11585 T ) as the type strain.