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Abstract
A slightly yellow pigmented strain (JM-534^sup T^) isolated from the rhizoplane of a field-grown Zea mays plant was investigated using a polyphasic approach for its taxonomic allocation. Cells of the isolate were observed to be rod-shaped and to stain Gram-negative. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that the isolate had the highest sequence similarities to Chryseobacterium lactis (98.9 %), Chryseobacterium joostei and Chryseobacterium indologenes (both 98.7 %), and Chryseobacterium viscerum (98.6 %). Sequence similarities to all other Chryseobacterium species were 98.5 % or below. The fatty acid analysis of the strain resulted in a Chryseobacterium typical pattern consisting mainly of the fatty acids C^sub 15:0^ iso, C^sub 15:0^ iso 2-OH, C^sub 17:1^ iso [omega]9c, and C^sub 17:0^ iso 3-OH. DNA-DNA hybridizations with the type strains of C. lactis, C. joostei, C. viscerum and C. indologenes resulted in values below 70 %. Genomic fingerprinting showed that the isolate was very different to the type strains of these species. Differentiating biochemical and chemotaxonomic properties showed that the isolate JM-534^sup T^ represents a novel species, for which the name Chryseobacterium rhizoplanae sp. nov. (type strain JM-534^sup T^ = LMG 28481^sup T^ = CCM 8544^sup T^ = CIP 110828^sup T^) is proposed.