Paenibacillus mendelii sp. nov., from surface-sterilized seeds of Pisum sativum L.

A Gram-variable, facultatively anaerobic, endospore-forming bacterium was isolated from surface-sterilized seeds of the garden pea and characterized with phenotypic and molecular methods. A PCR with the Paenibacillus-specific primer PAEN515F and the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain C/2T belongs to the genus Paenibacillus and is closely related to Paenibacillus phyllosphaerae (94.0 % sequence similarity).