A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, motile and rod-shaped bacterium, strain ZMN-3T, was isolated from desert soil sample collected from Ongniod Qi, Inner Mongolia, China. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain ZMN-3T was affiliated with the genus Massilia and showed the highest similarity to Massilia humi THG S6-8T (98.9 %) and Massilia buxea A9T (98.2 %). In partial gyrB and lepA sequences, the highest similarity of strain ZMN-3T and M. humi THG S6-8T were 95.9 and 96.8 %, respectively. The DNA-DNA hybridization value between strain ZMN-3T and its closely related type strains were all below 70 %. The major respiratory quinone of strain ZMN-3T was Q-8 and the major cellular fatty acids consisted of summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c) and C16 : 0. The predominant polar lipids contained diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and an unidentified phospholipid. The DNA G+C content of strain ZMN-3T was 66.3 mol%. On the basis of this polyphasic taxonomic study, strain ZMN-3T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Massilia, for which the name Massilia armeniaca sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ZMN-3T (=CGMCC 1.16209T=DSM 104676T).
Keywords: Massilia armeniaca; Proteobacteria; taxonomy.