Sphingobium vermicomposti sp. nov., isolated from vermicompost

Strain VC-230^T was isolated from homemade vermicompost produced from kitchen waste. The isolate was a Gram-negative-staining, catalase- and oxidase-positive, motile rod-shaped bacterium able to grow at 15-37 °C and pH 6-8. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain VC-230^T was determined to belong to the family Sphingomonadaceae by its clustering with type strains of the genus Sphingobium, with Sphingobium chlorophenolicum ATCC 33790^T (97.7 %) and Sphingobium herbicidovorans DSM 11019^T (97.4 %) as its closest neighbours. The polar lipid pattern, the presence of spermidine and ubiquinone 10, the predominance of the cellular fatty acids C_18:1ω7c/9t/12t, C_16:1ω7c and C_16:0 and the G+C content of the genomic DNA supported the affiliation of this organism to the genus Sphingobium. The phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic, phenotypic and DNA-DNA hybridization analyses verify that strain VC-230^T represents a novel species, for which the name Sphingobium vermicomposti sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is VC-230^T (=CCUG 55809^T =DSM 21299^T).