Erythrobacter oryzae sp. nov., isolated from rice paddy soil

Two novel bacterial strains, designated as COR-2 T and CR-8, were isolated from paddy soil. These isolates were aerobic, Gram-stain-negative, non-spore-forming, non-motile, rod-shaped, and formed orange-coloured colonies. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that two strains formed a clear phylogenetic lineage with the genus Erythrobacter . Strains COR-2 T and CR-8 showed 99.9 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity. Both strains had the highest 16S rRNA gene similarity of 99.1–99.7 % to Erythrobacter colymbi TPW-24 T , Erythrobacter donghaensis SW-132 T and Erythrobacter tepidarius DSM 10594 T , respectively. The genome of strain COR-2 T comprised 3 559 918 bp and the genomic DNA G + C content was 67.7 mol%. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA–DNA hybridization values between strain COR-2 T and its closely related species of the genus Erythrobacter were 79.3–85.5% and 24.1–29.1 %, respectively. The major respiratory quinone was Q-10, while the major fatty acids were C 18 : 1 ω 7 c and C 17 : 1 ω 6 c . The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, two unidentified phospholipids and eight unidentified lipids. Based on phylogenetic and phenotypic considerations, the two strains [COR-2 T (type strain; = KACC 22941 T =JCM 35529 T ) and CR-8 (= KACC 22945=JCM 35530)] are considered to represent novel species of the genus Erythrobacter , for which the name Erythrobacter oryzae sp. nov. is proposed.