Isolation and characterization of Paucibacter soli sp. nov. and Paucibacter hankyongi sp. nov. isolated from wetland soil

Two bacterial strains, designated as AS307^T and AS339^T, were isolated from wet soil in South Korea. The genome analysis shows that strains AS307^T and AS339^T belong to the genus <i>Paucibacter</i> and share the highest 16S rRNA gene similarity (≥97.9%) with <i>Paucibacter oligotrophus</i> KCTC 42519^T and '<i>Paucibacter aquatile</i>' KCCM 90284^T, respectively. The draft genome of strains AS307^T and AS339^T consists of circular chromosomes of 5,374,046 and 5,098,490 bp with DNA G+C content of 67.6 mol% and 62.7 mol%, respectively. Strains AS307^T and AS339^T show the ubiquinone 8 as the major quinone, C_{16 : 0}, C_{16 : 1} <i> ω7</i>c/_{C16 : 1} <i> ω</i>6<i>c</i> (summed feature 3) as major fatty acids and phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine as major polar lipids. The average nt identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values between strains AS307^T and AS339^T and phylogenetically closest strains were less than 80.5% and 19.0-22.5%, respectively. Furthermore, the genomic, physiological and biochemical results allow the phenotypic and genotypic differentiation of strains AS307^T and AS339^T from their closest and other species of the genus <i>Paucibacter</i> with validly published names. Therefore, both strains AS307^T and AS339^T represent novel species of the genus <i>Paucibacter</i>, for which the names <i>Paucibacter soli</i> sp. nov. (type strain AS307^T=KACC 23091^T=LMG 32952^T) and <i>Paucibacter hankyongi</i> sp. nov. (type strain AS339^T=KACC 23092^T=LMG 32953^T) are proposed.