A polyphasic taxonomic study was carried out on strains PB105T and PB108 isolated from a grass soil in Korea. The cells of the strains were Gram-stain negative, non-spore-forming, non-motile, and rod-shaped. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence studies showed a clear affiliation of these strains with Bacteroidetes, which showed high pairwise sequence similarities with Hymenobacter algoricola VUG-A23aT (99.2%), Hymenobacter fastidiosus VUG-A124aT (97.4%), and Hymenobacter daecheongensis Dae14T (96.9%). The phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the strains formed a clear phylogenetic lineage with the genus Hymenobacter. The major fatty acids were identified as C15:0 iso, C15:0 anteiso, C16:1 ω5c, C15:0 iso 3-OH, C17:0 iso 3-OH, summed feature 3 (C16:1 ω6c and/or C16:1 ω7c/t), and summed feature 4 (C17:1 anteiso B and/or C17:1 iso I). The major cellular polar lipids were identified as phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified aminolipid, and two unidentified lipids. The respiratory quinone was identified as MK-7 and the genomic DNA G+C content was determined to be 64.5 mol% for strain PB105T and 64.1 mol% for strain PB108. DNA-DNA hybridization value of type strain PB105T with H. algoricola VUG-A23aT was 32.3% (reciprocal 39.2). Based on the combined genotypic and phenotypic data, we propose that strains PB105T and PB108 represent a novel species of the genus Hymenobacter, for which the name Hymenobacter daejeonensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is PB105T (= KCTC 52579T = JCM 31885T).
Keywords: Grass soil; Hymenobacter daejeonensis; PB105; PB108.