Pedobacter kyonggii sp. nov., a psychrotolerant bacterium isolated from forest soil

Strain K-4-11-1^T, 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-4-11-1^T belongs to the genus Pedobacter and is closely related to Pedobacter ginsenosidimutans THG-45^T (98.75 % sequence similarity), Pedobacter borealis G-1^T (98.48 %), Pedobacter terrae DS-57^T (98.20 %), Pedobacter agri PB92^T (97.92 %) and Pedobacter suwonensis 15-52^T (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-4-11-1^T were summed feature 3 (C_16:1ω7c and/or C_16:1ω6c), iso-C_15:0, iso-C_17:0 3-OH, anteiso-C_17:0 and summed feature 9 (iso-C_17:1ω9c and/or C_16:0 10-methyl). The genomic DNA G+C content of this novel strain was 38.3 mol%. The DNA-DNA relatedness values between strain K-4-11-1^T and P. ginsenosidimutans KACC 14530^T, P. borealis KACC 14287^T, P. terrae KACC 13766^T, P. agri KACC 13768^T and P. suwonensis KACC 11317^T 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-4-11-1^T represents a novel species of the genus Pedobacter, for which the name Pedobacter kyonggii sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is K-4-11-1^T (=KEMB 9005-574^T=KACC 19174^T=JCM 31916^T).