Sulfurospirillum oryzae sp. nov., A Novel Nitrogen-Fixing Bacterium Isolated from Paddy Soil.

An anaerobic, Gram-staining-negative, rod shaped, nitrogen-fixing strain designed SG202T , was isolated from paddy soil collected from Fujian Province in China. Strain SG202T showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with the type strain Sulfurospirillum multivorans DSM 12446T (98.5%). Phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences and conserved core genes from genomes indicated that strain SG202T branched with members of the genus Sulfurospirillum. Growth was observed at 25-37 °C (optimum 30 °C), pH 6.0-10.5 (optimum 7.5), and 0-0.6% (w/v) NaCl (optimum 0.2%). Strain SG202T contained MK-6 as the menaquinone and C16:1 ω7c (40.6%), C16:0 (33.3%), C18:1 ω7c (13.6%) and C14:0 (9.0%) as the major fatty acids. The genomic DNA G+C content was 39.0%. The average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) values between strain SG202T and its closely related species S. multivorans DSM 12446T , Sulfurospirillum halorespirans DSM 13726T , Sulfurospirillum arsenophilum DSM 10659T and Sulfurospirillum diekertiae ACSDCE T were 81.3, 81.5, 84.4, 82.2% and 24.5, 24.5, 27.9, 25.2%, respectively. All these values were lower than the recommended species delineation thresholds of ANI (95-96%) and dDDH (70%). Strain SG202T possessed core genes (nifHDK) of nitrogen fixation, and nitrogenase activities (3470.45 μmol C2 H4 g-1 protein h-1 ) was examined using the acetylene reduction assay. Based on the observed physiological properties, chemotaxonomic characteristics and genome analysis, strain SG202T is recognized as a novel species of the genus Sulfurospirillum, for which the name Sulfurospirillum oryzae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SG202T (= GDMCC 1.3379T = JCM 35596T ).