LAUSR

Strain K-4-11-1T, a psychrotolerant, light salmon-coloured, Gram-stain-negative, non-motile and rod-shaped bacterium, was isolated from forest soil of Kyonggi University, Suwon, South Korea. It was able to grow at 0-32 °C, at pH 5.0-10.0 and with 0-1.5 % (w/v) NaCl. This strain was taxonomically characterized by a polyphasic approach. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain K-4-11-1T belongs to the genus Pedobacter and is closely related to Pedobacter ginsenosidimutans THG-45T (98.75 % sequence similarity), Pedobacter borealis G-1T (98.48 %), Pedobacter terrae DS-57T (98.20 %), Pedobacter agri PB92T (97.92 %) and Pedobacter suwonensis 15-52T (97.84 %). The only respiratory quinone was menaquinone-7. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine and unidentified glycolipids. The predominant fatty acids of strain K-4-11-1T were summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c), iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 0 3-OH, anteiso-C17 : 0 and summed feature 9 (iso-C17 : 1ω9c and/or C16 : 0 10-methyl). The genomic DNA G+C content of this novel strain was 38.3 mol%. The DNA-DNA relatedness values between strain K-4-11-1T and P. ginsenosidimutans KACC 14530T, P. borealis KACC 14287T, P. terrae KACC 13766T, P. agri KACC 13768T and P. suwonensis KACC 11317T were 40.0, 36.3, 37.0, 32.3 and 29.7 %, respectively. The morphological, physiological, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analyses clearly distinguished this novel strain from its closest phylogenetic neighbours. Thus, strain K-4-11-1T represents a novel species of the genus Pedobacter, for which the name Pedobacter kyonggii sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is K-4-11-1T (=KEMB 9005-574T=KACC 19174T=JCM 31916T).