A strictly aerobic, orange-pigmented strain was isolated and designated as UCM-25T. This strain is capable of degrading aniline and benzene, while is also producing antimicrobial compounds which inhibit the growth of some common pathogenic microbes. A near full-length 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed similarity to Sphingobium chlorophenolicum NBRC 16172T (98.6%). The level of DNA-DNA hybridization between the new isolate and the related species suggests UCM-25T to be a new species belonging to the genus Sphingobium. The bacterial cells contained phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, sphingoglycolipid, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine, phosphatidyldimethylethanolamine, three unidentified polar lipids, and an unidentified aminophospholipid. Ubiquinone Q-10 was the major quinone and spermidine was the major polyamine. The G+C content in the DNA of strain UCM-25T was 62.9 mol%. Cells contained summed feature 8 (C18:1ω7c and/or C18:1ω6c), summed feature 3 (C16:1ω7c and/or C16:1ω6c), C16:0, and C14:0 2-OH as major fatty acids. Based on the comparison of phenotypic, genotypic, and chemotaxonomic characteristics, strain UCM-25T represents a new member of the genus Sphingobium, for which the name S. aromaticivastans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is UCM-25T (=KACC 19288T =DSM 105181T).
Keywords: Antimicrobial compound; Aromatic hydrocarbon; Degradation; Soil; Sphingobium aromaticivastans sp. nov..