A novel Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped, non-motile, yellowish bacterium, designated strain 1.3611T, was isolated from the wormcast of Eisenia foetida. The strain grew optimally at 30-37 ℃, at pH 7.0 and with 0-1.0 % (w/v) NaCl. Based on the results of 16S rRNA gene sequence and phylogenetic analyses, strain 1.3611T showed the highest degree of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Sphingobacterium olei HAL-9T (97.0 %), followed by Sphingobacterium alkalisoli Y3L14T (95.8 %). The respiratory quinone of strain 1.3611T was menaquinone-7 (MK-7) and its major cellular fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0 (41.3 %), summed feature 3 (C16 : 1 ω7c and/or C16 : 1 ω6c, 22.1 %) and iso-C17 : 0 3-OH (16.2 %). The major polar lipids were sphingophospholipid, phosphatidylethanolamine, four unidentified glycolipids, two unidentified phospholipids and five unidentified polar lipids. The genomic DNA G+C content was 39.0 mol%. The digital DNA-DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity values between the genomes of strain 1.3611T and S. olei HAL-9T were 37.9 and 88.9 %, respectively. According to the phenotypic and chemotaxonomic phylogenetic results, strain 1.3611T should represent a novel species of the genus Sphingobacterium, for which the name Sphingobacterium lumbrici sp. nov. is proposed, with strain 1.3611T (=KCTC 62980T=CCTCC AB 2018349T) as the type strain.
Keywords: 16S rRNA gene; Sphingobacterium lumbrici sp. nov.; polyphasic taxonomic; wormcast.