Emticicia agri sp. nov., a novel member of the family Cytophagaceae

A bacterial strain, 17J42-9T, was isolated from a soil sample collected on Jeju Island, Republic of Korea. Cells were observed to be Gram-stain negative and rod-shaped. Colonies were observed to be orange in colour on R2A agar. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that high levels of 16S rRNA sequence similarity were shared between 17J42-9T and Emticicia fontis IMCC1731T (98.2 %), Emticicia ginsengisoliGsoil 085T (98.2 %) and Emticicia soli ZZ-4T (97.8 %). Growth of strain 17J42-9T was observed at 10-37 °C, pH 6.0-8.5 and in the presence of 0-0.5 % NaCl. The genomic G+C content was calculated to be 38.6 mol%. The predominant respiratory quinone of the isolate was found to be MK-7; the major fatty acids were identified as summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c) (34.1 %), C15 : 0iso (23.4 %) and C17 : 0iso 3-OH (10.8 %). The major polar lipids were found to be phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified aminolipids and an unidentified lipid. The phenotypic and chemotaxonomic data support the affiliation of strain 17J42-9T with the genus Emticicia. However, the DNA-DNA relatedness between the isolate and its closest phylogenetic neighbours was lower than 46 %. The results of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity analysis, DNA-DNA hybridization analysis and the observed differentiating phenotypic properties from other closely related taxa clearly indicate that strain 17J42-9T represents a novel species in the genus Emticicia, for which the name Emticiciaagri sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 17J42-9T (=KCTC 62270T=JCM 33056T).