Paenibacillus taiwanensis sp. nov., isolated from soil in Taiwan.

Among a large collection of Taiwanese soil isolates, a novel Gram-variable, rod-shaped, motile and endospore-forming bacterial strain, designated G-soil-2-3T, was isolated from farmland soil in Wu-Feng, Taiwan. The isolate was subjected to a polyphasic study including 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, DNA–DNA hybridization experiments, fatty acid analysis and comparative phenotypic characterization. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that the organism belongs within the genus Paenibacillus. It contained menaquinone MK-7 as the predominant isoprenoid quinone and anteiso-C15 : 0 (40.5 %), iso-C15 : 0 (13.1 %), iso-C16 : 0 (10.8 %) and anteiso-C17 : 0 (7.3 %) as the major fatty acids. Phylogenetically, the closest relatives of strain G-soil-2-3T were the type strains of Paenibacillus assamensis, Paenibacillus alvei and Paenibacillus apiarius, with 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 95.7, 95 and 95.2 %, respectively. DNA–DNA hybridization experiments showed levels of relatedness of 2.8–9.0 % of strain G-soil-2-3T with these strains. The G+C content of the DNA was 44.6 mol%. Strain G-soil-2-3T was clearly distinguishable from P. assamensis, P. alvei and P. apiarius and thus represents a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus taiwanensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is G-soil-2-3T (=BCRC 17411T=IAM 15414T=LMG 23799T=DSM 18679T).