Methylobacterium endophyticum sp. nov. and Endoryza foliicola gen. nov., sp. nov., two novel endophytic bacterial species isolated from rice phyllosphere

Four endophytic bacterial strains sgz302541^T, sgz302542, sgz302552^T and sgz302555 were isolated from the rice phyllosphere in Fujian Province, China. Cells were Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped and motile. The optimal growth conditions for all strains were at 30 °C and pH 7.0 without NaCl. Strain sgz302541^T showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to <i>Methylobacterium jeotgali</i> S2R03-9^T (97.7%), while strain sgz302552^T shared the highest similarity with <i>Paraflavitalea soli</i> 5GH32-13^T (96.1%). Genome sequencing revealed that the DNA G+C content of sgz302541^T was 70.3%, and that of sgz302552^T was 40.7%. The ANI values between strain sgz302541^T, sgz302552^T and their closest strains were 85.9% and 71.0%, respectively. The AAI values between sgz302552^T and all genera within the family <i>Chitinophagaceae</i> ranged from 50.5 to 63.9%. The major fatty acids (>10%) of sgz302541^T and sgz302552^T were summed feature 8 (C_{18 : 1} <i> ω</i>7<i>c</i> and/or C_{18 : 1} <i> ω</i>6<i>c</i>; 70.1%), iso-C_{15 : 0} (38.0%) and iso-C_{15 : 1} G (17.2%), respectively. The predominant respiratory quinones for sgz302541^T and sgz302552^T were Q-10 and MK-7, respectively. Physiological, biochemical, phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic analyses indicated that strains sgz302541^T and sgz302552^T represent two novel taxa, for which the names <i>Methylobacterium endophyticum</i> sp. nov. (type strain sgz302541^T=MCCC 1K09625^T=KCTC 8981^T) and <i>Endoryza foliicola</i> gen. nov., sp. nov. (type strain sgz302552^T (=MCCC 1K09627^T=KCTC 102381^T) are proposed, respectively.