Burkholderia aspalathi sp. nov., isolated from root nodules of the South African legume Aspalathus abietina Thunb

Abstract

During a study to investigate the diversity of rhizobia associated with native legumes in South Africa's Cape Floristic Region, a Gram-negative bacterium designated VG1C(T) was isolated from the root nodules of Aspalathus abietina Thunb. Based on phylogenetic analyses of the 16S rRNA and recA genes, VG1C(T) belongs to the genus Burkholderia, with the highest degree of sequence similarity to the type strain of Burkholderia sediminicola (98.5% and 98%, respectively). The DNA G+C content of strain VG1C(T) was 60.1 mol%, and DNA-DNA relatedness values to the type strain of closely related species were found to be substantially lower than 70%. As evidenced by results of genotypic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic tests provided here, we conclude that isolate VG1C(T) represents a novel rhizosphere-associated species in the genus Burkholderia, for which the name Burkholderia aspalathi sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain VG1C(T) ( = DSM 27239(T) = LMG 27731(T)).