A novel rod-shaped, Gram-stain-positive, spore-forming and motile by peritrichous flagella strain, designated HJL G12T, was isolated from the root of Chinese herb Dendrobium nobile. Strain HJL G12T grew optimally at pH 7.0, 30 °C and in the presence of 1.0 % NaCl (w/v). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene and genomic sequences showed that HJL G12T clustered with Paenibacillus chibensis NBRC 15958T and Paenibacillus dokdonensis YH-JAE5T with 98.3 and 98.2 % sequence similarity. The DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain HJL G12T and the two reference strains were 23.6 % and 24.9 %, respectively. Menaquinone-7 was the only respiratory quinone and meso-diaminopimelic acid was present in the cell-wall peptidoglycan. Antesio-C15 : 0 and iso-C16 : 0 were detected to be the major cellular fatty acids. The cellular polar lipid profile contained diphosphatidyglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, lysyl-phospatidylglycerol and three unidentified aminophospholipids. Based on these results, strain HJL G12T is considered to represent a novel species within the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus dendrobii sp. nov. is proposed, with HJL G12T (=NBRC 115617T=CGMCC 1.18520T) as the type strain.
Keywords: Dendrobium nobile; Paenibacillus dendrobii sp. nov.; endophyte; novel species.