Flavobacterium panacis sp. nov., isolated from rhizosphere of Panax ginseng

A novel bacterial strain, designated DCY106T, was isolated from soil collected from the rhizosphere of ginseng (Panax ginseng), in Gochang, Republic of Korea. Strain DCY106T is Gram-negative, yellow-pigmented, non-flagellate, motile, non-spore-forming, rod-shaped, and strictly aerobic. The strain grows optimally at 25–30 °C and pH 6.5–7.5. Phylogenetically, strain DCY106T is closely related to Flavobacterium arsenitoxidans KCTC 22507T (98.41 %), followed by Flavobacterium cutihirudini LMG 26922T (97.67 %), Flavobacterium nitrogenifigens LMG 28694T (97.59 %), Flexibacter auranticus LMG 3987T (97.38 %), Flavobacterium defluvi KCTC 12612T (97.21 %) and Flavobacterium chilense LMG 26360T (97.05 %). The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities to all other Flavobacterium species were below 97 %. The DNA G+C content of strain DCY106T is 34.2 mol% and the DNA–DNA relatedness between strain DCY106T and F. cutihirudini LMG 26922T, F. auranticus LMG 3987T, F. defluvi KCTC 12612T and F. chilense LMG 26360T were below 40.0 %. The menaquinone of the type MK-6 was found to be the predominant respiratory quinone. The major polar lipids were identified as phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylserine, two unidentified aminolipids (APL1, APL6) and one unidentified lipid L2. C15:0, iso-C15:0 and summed feature 3 (iso-C15:0 2OH/C16:1 ω7c) were identified as the major fatty acids present in DCY106T. The results of physiological and biochemical tests allowed strain DCY106T to be differentiated phenotypically from other recognized species belonging to the genus Flavobacterium. Therefore, it is suggested that the newly isolated organism represents a novel species, for which the name Flavobacterium panacis sp. nov. is proposed with the type strain designated as DCY106T (= JCM 31468T= KCTC 42747T).