Paenibacillus sabinae sp. nov., a nitrogen-fixing species isolated from the rhizosphere soils of shrubs

• DOI: 10.1099/ijs.0.64519-0
• Publication Date: 2007-01-12T20:43:12Z
• Authors: Yuchao Ma; Zhiqiang Xia; Xuming Liu; Sanfeng Chen
• Keywords: DNA, Bacterial; 0301 basic medicine; Base Composition; Gram-Positive Endospore-Forming Rods; Fatty Acids; Molecular Sequence Data; Nucleic Acid Hybridization; Genes, rRNA; Sequence Analysis, DNA; 15. Life on land; Bacterial Typing Techniques; Trees; 03 medical and health sciences; Nitrogen Fixation; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; Phylogeny; Soil Microbiology

Five novel endospore-forming, nitrogen-fixing bacterial strains were isolated from the rhizosphere soils of plants of the speciesSabina squamata,Weigela floridaandZanthoxylum simulans. A phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the five strains formed a distinct cluster within the genusPaenibacillus. These novel strains showed the highest levels (96.2–98.2 %) of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity withPaenibacillus azotofixans. However, the DNA–DNA relatedness between these novel strains andP. azotofixanswas 12.9–29.5 %. The DNA G+C contents of the five strains were found to be 51.9–52.9 mol%. Phenotypic analyses showed that a significant feature of the novel strains (differentiating them fromP. azotofixansand otherPaenibacillusspecies) is that all of them were unable to produce acid and gas from various carbohydrates such as glucose, sucrose, lactose and fructose. Anteiso-branched C15 : 0was the major fatty acid present in the novel type strain. On the basis of these data, the five novel strains represent a novel species of the genusPaenibacillus, for which the namePaenibacillus sabinaesp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is T27T(=CCBAU 10202T=DSM 17841T).