Reclassification of Rhizobium panacihumi as Endobacterium panacihumi comb. nov. and emended description of the genus Endobacterium

The species <i>Rhizobium panacihumi</i> was isolated from ginseng-cultivated soil in Gochang-gun (South Korea) and only encompassed the type strain DCY116^T (=KCTC 62017^T=JCM 32251^T), which was phylogenetically related to <i>Rhizobium yantingense</i>. Although the species <i>R. yantingense</i> was later reclassified as <i>Endobacterium yantingense</i>, the species <i>R. panacihumi</i> was not transferred to the genus <i>Endobacterium</i>, which currently encompasses the species <i>Endobacterium cereale</i> and <i>E. yantingense</i>. The 16S rRNA phylogenetic analysis showed that strain DCY116^T clustered with the type strains of these two species. The phylogenomic analysis of the whole genome of the type strain <i>R. panacihumi</i> KCTC 62017^T, which was obtained in this study, confirmed that <i>E. cereale</i> RZME27^T and <i>E. yantingense</i> CCTCC AB 2014007^T are the closest relatives of <i>R. panacihumi</i> KCTC 62017^T. The calculated average nucleotide identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values between the genome of this strain and those of <i>E. cereale</i> RZME27^T and <i>E. yantingense</i> CCTCC AB 2014007,^T together with the results of the phylogenomic analysis, support the reclassification of the species <i>R. panacihumi</i> as <i>Endobacterium panacihumi</i> comb. nov. and the emendation of the genus <i>Endobacterium</i>.