Microvirga medicaginis sp. nov., isolated from the soil of Dongying City

Strain G4-2^T was isolated from the rhizosphere soil of alfalfa (<i>*Medicago sativa*</i> L.) in Dongying City, Eastern China. The isolate was rod-shaped, flagellate, motile and Gram-negative, and the colonies were flat, circular, beige and opaque. Strain G4-2^T grew at salinities of 0-1% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0.5%), pH 6.0-9.0 (optimum, 8.0) and 20-50 °C (optimum, 37 °C). Phylogenetic and phylogenomic analyses based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence suggest that G4-2^T belongs to the genus <i>Microvirga</i> and is most closely related to <i>Microvirga vignae</i> BR3299^T. Its major fatty acid was C_{18 : 1} <i> </i>ω7c (68.3%). The polar lipid profile included phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and partially unidentified phosphoglycolipid. The sole respiratory quinone detected was ubiquinone 10. Average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) values between strain G4-2^T and members of the <i>Microvirga</i> genus ranged from 74.0 to 90.3% and 20.3 to 42.0%, respectively. Both values are below the species delineation thresholds for species identification. Based on the result of the polyphasic characterization, we proposed a novel species in the genus <i>Microvirga</i>, <i>Microvirga medicaginis</i> sp. nov., the type strain of which was G4-2T (= ACCC 6437T = KCTC 18095T).