Phyllobacterium catacumbae sp. nov., a member of the order 'Rhizobiales' isolated from Roman catacombs.

Two strains were isolated from tuff, a volcanic rock that forms the walls of the Roman Catacombs of Saint Callixtus in Rome, Italy. A polyphasic approach using nutritional and physiological tests, reactions to antibiotics, fatty acid profiles, DNA base ratios, DNA–DNA reassociation and 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons showed that the two isolates belong to a novel species within the genus Phyllobacterium. The species Phyllobacterium catacumbae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CSC19T (=CECT 5680T=LMG 22520T).