Rahnella victoriana sp. nov., Rahnella bruchi sp. nov., Rahnella woolbedingensis sp. nov., classification of Rahnella genomospecies 2 and 3 as Rahnella variigena sp. nov. and Rahnella inusitata sp. nov., respectively and emended description of the genus Rahnella

Isolations from oak symptomatic of Acute Oak Decline, alder and walnut log tissue, and buprestid beetles in 2009–2012 yielded 32 Gram-negative bacterial strains showing highest gyrB sequence similarity to Rahnella aquatilis and Ewingella americana. Multilocus sequence analysis (using partial gyrB, rpoB, infB and atpD gene sequences) delineated the strains into six MLSA groups. Two MLSA groups contained reference strains of Rahnella genomospecies 2 and 3, three groups clustered within the Rahnella clade with no known type or reference strains and the last group contained the type strain of E. americana. DNA–DNA relatedness assays using both the microplate and fluorometric methods, confirmed that each of the five Rahnella MLSA groups formed separate taxa. Rahnella genomospecies 2 and 3 were previously not formally described due to a lack of distinguishing phenotypic characteristics. In the present study, all five Rahnella MLSA groups were phenotypically differentiated from each other and from R. aquatilis. Therefore we propose to classify the strains from symptomatic oak, alder and walnut and buprestid beetles as: Rahnella victoriana sp. nov. (type strain FRB 225T = LMG 27717T = DSM 27397T), Rahnella variigena sp. nov. (previously Rahnella genomosp. 2, type strain CIP 105588T = LMG 27711T), Rahnella inusitata sp. nov. (previously Rahnella genomosp. 3, type strain DSM 30078T = LMG 2640T), Rahnella bruchi sp. nov. (type strain FRB 226T = LMG 27718T = DSM 27398T) and Rahnella woolbedingensis sp. nov. (type strain FRB 227T = LMG 27719T = DSM 27399T).