Abstract
A nonylphenol-degrading bacterial strain (YTT) was isolated previously from a river sediment sample obtained in Ami-machi, Ibaraki, Japan, and identified as a Sphingomonas species. In this study, the taxonomic relationship between strain YTT, a recently described nonylphenol-degrading strain, Sphingomonas cloacae, and Sphingobium yanoikuyae, which is phylogenetically related, was examined. Their phenotypic characteristics were compared and levels of DNADNA relatedness between these strains were determined. Based on the results of physiological and biochemical tests and DNADNA hybridization, it is proposed that strain YTT (=IAM 15006T=JCM 11777T=CIP 107839T) represents a novel species of the genus Sphingobium, Sphingobium amiense sp. nov.