Methylobacterium oxalidis sp. nov., isolated from leaves of Oxalis corniculata

A pink-pigmented, facultatively methylotrophic bacterium, strain 35a^T, was isolated from the leaves of Oxalis corniculata. Cells of strain 35a^T were Gram-reaction-negative, motile, non-sporeforming rods. The highest 16S rRNA gene pairwise sequence similarities for strain 35a^T were found with the strains of Methylobacterium iners 5317S-33^T (96.7 %), 'Methylobacterium soli' YIM 48816 (96.6 %) and Methylobacterium jeotgali S2R03-9^T (96.3 %). 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities with the type strains of all other recognized species of the genus Methylobacterium were below 96 %. Major cellular fatty acids were C_{18: 1}ω7c, C_{18: 0} and C_{16: 0}. The results of DNA-DNA hybridization experiments, analysis of cpn60 gene sequences, fatty acid profiles, whole-cell MALDI-TOF/MS spectral pattern analysis, and physiological and biochemical tests allowed genotypic and phenotypic differentiation of strain 35a^T from its nearest phylogenetic neighbours. Strain 35a^T is therefore considered to represent a novel species within the genus Methylobacterium, for which the name Methylobacterium oxalidis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 35a^T (=DSM 24028^T=NBRC 107715^T).