Hymenobacter pedocola sp. Nov., a novel bacterium isolated from soil

Strain S12-2-1^T was isolated from a soil sample collected in the Gyeongsangnam-do province of the Republic of Korea. The isolate is a Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, short, rod-shaped bacterium, and its colonies are red to pink in colour. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene identified strain S12-2-1^T as a member of the genus Hymenobacter in the family Cytophagaceae, with high levels of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Hymenobacter arizonensis OR362-8^T (97.7 %), Hymenobacter sedentarius DG5B^T (97.4 %) and Hymenobacter humi DG31A^T (97.2 %). The isolate was positive for catalase and oxidase, but negative for acid production from glucose. The growth of strain S12-2-1^T was supported at 4–30°C, pH 7–10 and in the presence of 0– 0.5 % NaCl. Strain S12-2-1^T contained menaquinone-7 as the predominant respiratory quinone, sym-homospermidine as the major polyamine and iso-C_{15: 0}, anteiso-C_{15: 0} and summed feature 3 (C_{16: 1}ω7c/C_{16: 1}ω6c) as the major fatty acids. Phosphatidylethanolamine was the major polar lipid. The genomic DNA G+C content was 58.7 mol%. Phenotypic and chemotaxonomic data supported the assignment of the isolate to the genus Hymenobacter. However, strain S12-2-1^T exhibited a relatively low level of DNA–DNA relatedness with H. humi (31.7 %), H. arizonensis (24.4 %) and H. sedentarius (21.3 %). Based on its phenotypic and genotypic properties, along with its phylogenetic distinctiveness, strain S12-2-1^T should be considered a novel species in the genus Hymenobacter, for which the name Hymenobacter pedocola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is S12-2-1^T (=KCTC 52730^T=JCM 32198^T).