sp. nov., isolated from ginseng-cultivation soil with ginsenoside-converting activity.

A Gram-stain-negative, non-motile, non-spore-forming, aerobic, rod-shaped and yellow-pigmented bacterium, designated strain Gsoil 183, was isolated from ginseng-cultivation soil sampled in Pocheon Province, Republic of Korea. This bacterium was characterized to determine its taxonomic position by using a polyphasic approach. Strain Gsoil 183 grew at 10-37 °C and at pH 5.0-9.0 on tryptic soy agar. Strain Gsoil 183 had -glucosidase activity, which was responsible for its ability to convert ginsenoside Rb1 (one of the dominant active components of ginseng) to F2. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing, strain Gsoil 183 clustered with species of the genus and appeared to be closely related to LMG 28695 (99.1 % sequence similarity), NCTC 11390 (98.6%), LMG 28481 (98.6%), CCUG 60105 (98.5%), CCUG 60103 (98.4%) and DSM 16927 (98.3%). Menaquinone MK-6 was the predominant respiratory quinone and the major fatty acids were iso-C, iso-C-3OH and summed feature 3 (C 6 and/or C 7). The polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, six unidentified glycolipids, five unidentified aminolipids and three unidentified lipids. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 36.6 mol%. Digital DNA-DNA hybridization between strain Gsoil 183 and the type strains of , , , , and resulted in values below 70 %. Strain Gsoil 183 could be differentiated genotypically and phenotypically from the recognized species of the genus . The isolate therefore represents a novel species, for which the name sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain Gsoil 183 (=KACC 15033=LMG 23397).