Paenibacillus auburnensis sp. nov. and Paenibacillus pseudetheri sp. nov., isolated from the rhizosphere of Zea mays

Two Gram- stain-positive, aerobic, endospore-forming bacterial strains, isolated from the rhizosphere of Zea mays were studied for their detailed taxonomic allocation. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity comparisons, both strains JJ- 7T and JJ-60T were shown to be members of the genus Paenibacillus. Strain JJ- 7T was most closely related to the type strains of Paenibacillus tianjinensis (99.6 %) and P. typhae (98.7 %), and strain JJ- 60T to Paenibacillus etheri (99.5 %). The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities to all other Paenibacillus species were <= 98.4 %. Both strains JJ- 7T and JJ- 60T showed 97.6 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity between each other. Genomic comparisons showed that the average nucleotide identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values to next related type strain genomes were always <94 and <56 %, respectively. The polar lipid profiles of both strains contain a number of phospholipids including diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and phos-phatidylethanolamine, which is in accord with the genus Paenibacillus. The major quinone was MK -7 in both strains. Major fatty acids were iso-and anteiso-branched. Physiological and biochemical characteristics allowed a further phenotypic differentia-tion of strains JJ- 7T and JJ- 60T from the most closely related species. Thus, each strain represents a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the names Paenibacillus auburnensis sp. nov. and Paenibacillus pseudetheri sp. nov. are proposed, with JJ-7T (=CIP 111892T=DSM 111785T=LMG 32088T=CCM 9087T) and JJ- 60T (=CIP 111894T=DSM 111787T=LMG 32090T=CCM 9086T) as the type strains, respectively.