Ochrobactrum endophyticum sp. nov., isolated from roots of Glycyrrhiza uralensis.

A novel Gram-staining negative, motile, rod-shaped and aerobic bacterial strain, designated EGI 60010T, was isolated from healthy roots of Glycyrrhiza uralensis F. collected from Yili County, Xinjiang Province, North-West China. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain EGI 60010T showed 97.2 % sequence similarities with Ochrobactrum anthropi ATCC 49188T and Ochrobactrum cytisi ESC1T, and 97.1 % with Ochrobactrum lupini LUP21T. The phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the new isolate clustered with members of the genera Ochrobactrum, and formed a distinct clade in the neighbour-joining tree. Q-10 was identified as the respiratory quinone for strain EGI 60010T. The major fatty acids were summed feature 8 (C18:1 ω6c and/or C18:1 ω7c), C19:0 cyclo ω8c, summed feature 4 (C17:1 iso I/anteiso B) and C16:0. The polar lipids detected were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylmethylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylcholine. The DNA G+C content of strain EGI 60010T was determined to be 60.4 mol%. The genomic DNA relatedness values determined between strain EGI 60010T and the closely related strains O. anthropi JCM 21032T, O. cytisi CCTCC AB2014258T and O. lupini NBRC 102587T were 50.3, 50.0 and 41.6 %, respectively. Based on the results of the molecular studies supported by its differentiating phenotypic characteristics, strain EGI 60010T was considered to represent a novel species within the genus Ochrobactrum, for which the name Ochrobactrum endophyticum sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is EGI 60010T (=CGMCC 1.15082T = KCTC 42485T = DSM 29930T).