Sphingomonas folii sp. nov., Sphingomonas citri sp. nov. and Sphingomonas citricola sp. nov., isolated from citrus phyllosphere

Three novel Gram-stain-negative, aerobic and rod-shaped bacterial strains, designated RHCKR7 T , RRHST34 T and RHCKR47 T , were isolated from phyllosphere of healthy citrus collected in Renhua County, Guangdong Province, PR China. Phylogenetic analyses showed that they belonged to the genus Sphingomonas , among which both strains RHCKR7 T and RRHST34 T showed a close relationship with Sphingomonas yunnanensis YIM 003 T with 16S rRNA gene similarity of 99.0 and 99.1%, respectively, and the similarity between the two novel strains was 99.2%, meanwhile strain RHCKR47 T was most closely related to Sphingomonas palmae KACC 17591 T (99.5%). Genome-derived average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA–DNA hybridization (dDDH) values between closely related novel strains RHCKR7 T and RRHST34 T were 90.43 and 40.80 %, respectively, and their most closely related type strain, S. yunnanensis YIM 003 T , showed 90.43 % ANI and 40.7 % dDDH with RHCKR7 T and 90.21 % and 42.9 % with RRHST34 T , respectively, and the corresponding values between strain RHCKR47 T and S. palmae KACC 17591 T were 85.53 % and 29.30%, respectively. They all took C 14 : 0 2-OH and summed feature 8 (C 18 : 1 ω 6 c and/or C 18 : 1 ω 7 c ) as the major fatty acids, and ubiquinone 10 as the predominant respiratory quinone. The major polar lipids contained sphingoglycolipid, phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine and unidentified phospholipids. sym -Homospermidine was the major polyamine. Based on phenotypic, genotypic and chemotaxonomic analyses, the new isolates should be considered as representing three novel species of the genus Sphingomonas , for which the names Sphingomonas folli sp. nov., Sphingomonas citri sp. nov. and Sphingomonas citricola sp. nov. are proposed with RHCKR7 T (=GDMCC 1.2663 T =JCM 34794 T ), RRHST34 T (=GDMCC 1.2665 T =JCM 34796 T ) and RHCKR47 T (=GDMCC 1.2664 T =JCM 34795 T ) as the type strains, respectively.