Two novel species isolated from wheat rhizospheres in Serbia: Pseudomonas serbica sp. nov. and Pseudomonas serboccidentalis sp. nov.

Pseudomonas strains IT-194P, IT-215P, IT-P366 and IT-P374 were isolated from the rhizospheres of wheat grown in soils sampled from different fields (some of them known to be disease-suppressive) located near Mionica, Serbia. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA genes and of whole genome sequences showed that these strains belong to two potentially new species, one containing strains IT-P366 and IT-194P and clustering (whole genome analysis) next to P. umsongensis DSM16611, and another species containing strains IT-P374 and IT-215P and clustering next to P. koreensis LMG21318. Genome analysis confirmed the proposition of novel species, as ANI was below the threshold of 95% and dDDH below 70% for strains IT-P366 (compared with P. umsongensis DSM16611) and IT-P374 (compared with P. koreensis LMG21318). Unlike P. umsongensis DSM16611, strains of P. serbica can grow on D-mannitol, but not on pectin, D-galacturonic acid, L-galactonic acid lactone and α-hydroxybutyric acid. In contrary to P. koreensis LMG21318, strains of P. serboccidentalis can use sucrose, inosine and α-ketoglutaric acid (but not L-histidine) as carbon sources. Altogether, these results indicate the existence of two novel species for which we propose the names Pseudomonas serbica sp. nov., with the type strain IT-P366 (=CFBP 9060  = LMG 32732  = EML 1791 ) and Pseudomonas serboccidentalis sp. nov., with the type strain IT-P374 (=CFBP 9061  = LMG 32734  = EML 1792 ). Strains from this study presented a set of phytobeneficial functions modulating plant hormonal balance, plant nutrition and plant protection, suggesting a potential as Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR).