Kosakonia pseudosacchari sp. nov., an endophyte of Zea mays.

A beige pigmented bacterial strain (JM-387(T)), isolated from field-grown corn root tissue, Tallassee, Alabama, was studied for its taxonomic allocation. A comparison of the 16S rRNA gene sequence with those of the type strains of most closely related species of the family Enterobacteriaceae showed highest sequence similarities to the type strain of Kosakonia sacchari (99.5%), "Enterobacter oryzendophyticus" (98.8%), and Kosakonia radicincitans (98.6%). Construction of phylogenetic trees based on the 16S rRNA gene and partial sequences of four protein-coding genes, rpoB, gyrB, infB, and atpD (multilocus sequence analysis, MLSA) showed a distinct clustering of strain JM-387(T) with Kosakonia sacchari. DNA-DNA hybridizations between JM-387(T) and the type strains of most similar Kosakonia/"Enterobacter" species including K. sacchari LMG 26783(T), "E. oryzendophyticus" LMG 26432(T), K. radicincitans D5/23(T), K. oryzae LMG 24251(T), E. cancerogenus LMG 2693(T), and E. cloacae subsp. dissolvens CCUG 25230(T) were in the range of 14.4-60.2%. The average nucleotide identity (ANI) of the genome sequence of the new strain to K. sacchari SP1(T) was 94.47%. Strain JM-387(T) had a typical enterobacterial fatty acid pattern consisting of the major fatty acids C16:0, C16:1 ω7c/C16:1 ω6c/C15:0 2OH, C18:1 ω7c/C18:1 ω6c with C14:0 3-OH as hydroxylated fatty acid. Genotypic data and the differentiating biochemical and chemotaxonomic properties showed that strain JM-387(T) represents a novel species of the genus Kosakonia, for which the name Kosakonia pseudosacchari sp. nov. (type strain JM-387(T)=CIP 110597(T)=DSM 27151(T)) is proposed.