Characterization and Genomic Analysis of Fererhizobium litorale gen. nov., sp. nov., Isolated from the Sandy Sediments of the Sea of Japan Seashore.

The taxonomic status of two gram-negative, whitish-pigmented motile bacteria KMM 9576 T and KMM 9553 isolated from a sandy sediment sample from the Sea of Japan seashore was defined. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that strains KMM 9576 T and KMM 9553 represent a distinct lineage within the family Rhizobiaceae, sharing 100% 16S rRNA sequence similarity and 99.5% average nucleotide identity (ANI) to each other. The strains showed the highest 16S rRNA sequence similarities of 97.4% to Sinorhizobium garamanticum LMG 24692 T , 96.9% to Ensifer adhaerens NBRC 100388 T , and 96.8% to Pararhizobium giardinii NBRC 107135 T . The ANI values between strain KMM 9576 T and Ensifer adhaerens NBRC 100388 T , Sinorhizobium fredii USDA 205 T , Pararhizobium giardinii NBRC 107135 T , and Rhizobium leguminosarum NBRC 14778 T were 79.9%, 79.6%, 79.4%, and 79.2%, respectively. The highest core-proteome average amino acid identity (cpAAI) values of 82.1% and 83.1% were estimated between strain KMM 9576 T and Rhizobium leguminosarum NBRC 14778 T and ' Rhizobium album ' NS-104, respectively. The DNA GC contents were calculated from a genome sequence to be 61.5% (KMM 9576 T ) and 61.4% (KMM 9553). Both strains contained the major ubiquinone Q-10 and C 18:1 ω 7 c as the dominant fatty acid followed by 11-methyl C 18:1 ω 7 c and C 19:0 cyclo, and polar lipids consisted of phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, an unidentified aminophospholipid, and two unidentified phospholipids. Based on phylogenetic and phylogenomic analyses, and phenotypic characterization, strains KMM 9576 T and KMM 9553 are concluded to represent a novel genus and species, for which the name Fererhizobium litorale gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of the type species is strain KMM 9576 T (=NRIC 0957 T ).