Genomic Analyses of Rose Crown Gall-Associated Bacteria Revealed Two New Species: sp. nov. and sp. nov.

species complex contains a set of diverse bacterial strains, most of which are well known for their pathogenicity on agricultural plants causing crown gall diseases. Members of species complex are classified into several taxonomically distinct lineages called "genomospecies" (13 genomospecies until early 2021). Recently, two genomospecies, G19 (strains Rnr, Rew, and Rnw) and G20 (strains OT33 and R13) infecting sp. plants in Iran, were described based on biochemical and molecular-phylogenetic data. Whole genome sequence-based core-genome phylogeny followed by average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) calculations performed in this study suggested that genomospecies G19 and G20 could be described as two novel and standalone species. In the phylogenetic tree, these two new genomospecies were clustered separately from other genomospecies/species of species complex. Moreover, both ANI and dDDH indices between the G19/G20 strains and other members are clearly below the accepted thresholds for prokaryotic species description. Hence, sp. nov. is proposed to encompass the G19 strains, with Rnr = CFBP 8705 = DSM 112541 as type strain. sp. nov. is also proposed to include G20 strains, with OT33 = CFBP 8901 = DSM 112540 as type strain.[Formula: see text] Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY 4.0 International license.