Abstract
A Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped, non-motile, non-spore-forming, aerobic bacterium, designated type strain SSI9(T), was isolated from sand fly (Phlebotomus papatasi Scopoli; Diptera: Psychodidae) rearing substrate and subjected to polyphasic taxonomic analysis. Strain SSI9(T) contained phosphatidylethanolamine as a major polar lipid, MK-7 as the predominant quinone, and C(16 : 1)ω6c/C(16 : 1)ω7c, iso-C(15 : 0), iso-C(17 : 0) 3-OH and C(16 : 0) as the major cellular fatty acids. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that SSI9(T) represents a member of the genus Sphingobacterium, of the family Sphingobacteriaceae sharing 96.5-88.0 % sequence similarity with other species of the genus Sphingobacterium. The results of multilocus sequence analysis using the concatenated sequences of the housekeeping genes recA, rplC and groL indicated that SSI9(T) formed a separate branch in the genus Sphingobacterium. The genome of SSI9(T) is 5 197 142 bp with a DNA G+C content of 41.8 mol% and encodes 4395 predicted coding sequences, 49 tRNAs, and three complete rRNAs and two partial rRNAs. SSI9(T) could be distinguished from other species of the genus Sphingobacterium with validly published names by several phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and genomic characteristics. On the basis of the results of this polyphasic taxonomic analysis, the bacterial isolate represents a novel species within the genus Sphingobacterium, for which the name Sphingobacterium phlebotomi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SSI9(T) (=ATCC TSD-210(T)=LMG 31664(T)=NRRL B-65603(T)).