Phenylobacterium koreense sp. nov., isolated from South Korea

A Gram-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming bacterium, Slu-01^T, was isolated from activated sludge from a wastewater treatment plant in Daejeon, South Korea. After 3 days on R2A medium, strain Slu-01^T developed colourless colonies (0·71·2 mm). The non-motile rods (0·71·0x1·02·0 µm) were slightly curved and occurred singly and in pairs. No filamentous cells were found. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, strain Slu-01^T was shown to belong to the family Caulobacteraceae and was most closely related to Phenylobacterium immobile (96·6 %) and Phenylobacterium lituiforme (96·5 %). The genomic DNA G+C content of strain Slu-01^T was 68·1 mol%, within the range of 67·368·4 mol% for the genus Phenylobacterium. Chemotaxonomic data (major ubiquinone, Q-10; major fatty acids C_{18 : 1}ω7c, C_{16 : 0}, C_{15 : 0} and C_{17 : 0}) and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis supported the affiliation of strain Slu-01^T to the genus Phenylobacterium. However, DNADNA hybridization data and phenotypic properties showed that strain Slu-01^T could be distinguished from the two other Phenylobacterium species with validly published names. Thus, it is suggested that strain Slu-01^T represents a novel species of the genus Phenylobacterium, for which the name Phenylobacterium koreense is proposed. The type strain is Slu-01^T (=KCTC 12206^T=IAM 15119^T).