Methylobacterium endophyticum sp. nov. and Endoryza foliicola gen. nov., sp. nov., two novel endophytic bacterial species isolated from rice phyllosphere

Four endophytic bacterial strains sgz302541 T , sgz302542, sgz302552 T and sgz302555 were isolated from the rice phyllosphere in Fujian Province, China. Cells were Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped and motile. The optimal growth conditions for all strains were at 30 °C and pH 7.0 without NaCl. Strain sgz302541 T showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Methylobacterium jeotgali S2R03-9 T (97.7%), while strain sgz302552 T shared the highest similarity with Paraflavitalea soli 5GH32-13 T (96.1%). Genome sequencing revealed that the DNA G+C content of sgz302541 T was 70.3%, and that of sgz302552 T was 40.7%. The ANI values between strain sgz302541 T , sgz302552 T and their closest strains were 85.9% and 71.0%, respectively. The AAI values between sgz302552 T and all genera within the family Chitinophagaceae ranged from 50.5 to 63.9%. The major fatty acids (>10%) of sgz302541 T and sgz302552 T were summed feature 8 (C 18 : 1 ω 7 c and/or C 18 : 1 ω 6 c ; 70.1%), iso-C 15 : 0 (38.0%) and iso-C 15 : 1 G (17.2%), respectively. The predominant respiratory quinones for sgz302541 T and sgz302552 T were Q-10 and MK-7, respectively. Physiological, biochemical, phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic analyses indicated that strains sgz302541 T and sgz302552 T represent two novel taxa, for which the names Methylobacterium endophyticum sp. nov. (type strain sgz302541 T =MCCC 1K09625 T =KCTC 8981 T ) and Endoryza foliicola gen. nov., sp. nov. (type strain sgz302552 T (=MCCC 1K09627 T =KCTC 102381 T ) are proposed, respectively.