Sphingomonas oligophenolica sp. nov., a halo- and organo-sensitive oligotrophic bacterium from paddy soil that degrades phenolic acids at low concentrations.

The taxonomic position of a halo- and organo-sensitive, oligotrophic soil bacterium, strain S213(T), was investigated. Cells were Gram-negative, non-motile, strictly aerobic, yellow-pigmented rods of short to medium length on diluted nutrient broth. When 0.1-0.4 % (w/v) NaCl was added to diluted media composed of peptone and meat extract, growth was inhibited with increasing NaCl concentration and the cells became long aberrant forms. When 6 mM CaCl(2) was added, the cells grew quite normally and aberrant cells were no longer found at 0.1-0.5 % (w/v) NaCl. Chemotaxonomically, strain S213(T) contains chemical markers that indicate its assignment to the Sphingomonadaceae: the presence of ubiquinone Q-10 as the predominant respiratory quinone, C(18 : 1) and C(16 : 0) as major fatty acids, C(14 : 0) 2-OH as the major 2-hydroxy fatty acid and sphingoglycolipids. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that strain S213(T) belongs to the genus Sphingomonas, exhibiting high sequence similarity to the 16S rRNA gene sequences of Sphingomonas mali IFO 15500(T) (98.3 %), Sphingomonas pruni IFO 15498(T) (98.0 %), Sphingomonas asaccharolytica IFO 15499(T) (97.9 %) and Sphingomonas echinoides DSM 1805(T) (97.8 %). The results of DNA-DNA hybridization experiments and its phenotypic characteristics clearly distinguished the strain from its nearest neighbours and demonstrate that strain S213(T) represents a novel Sphingomonas species, for which the name Sphingomonas oligophenolica sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is S213(T) (=JCM 12082(T)=CIP 107926(T)).