Ginsengibacter hankyongi gen. nov. sp. nov.

Siddiqi et al., 2021: Cells are Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic and long rod to rod shaped (0.2–0.5 µm wide and 1.3–2.0 µm long). Major respiratory quinone is MK-7. The major fatty acids are iso-C15:0, iso-C15:1 G, iso-C17:0 3-OH, C16:1 ω7c and/or C16:1 ω6c (summed feature 3) and iso-C17:0 2-OH. The flexirubin-type pigment is not produced. The G + C contents of the genomic DNA is 37.6 mol%. Based on phylogenetic analysis the phenotypic differences between the strain BR5-29T and other related genera of the family Chitinophagaceae are summarized in Table 1. Furthermore, the differential phenotypic characteristics of the novel isolate and the most closely related genus Ferruginibacter and type genus of the said family Chitinophaga are shown in Table 2. Phylogenetically, the genus is affiliated to the family Chitinophagaceae, phylum Bacteroidota. The type species is Ginsengibacter hankyongi.

In addition to the properties given in the genus description, cells are circular, opaque, yellow coloured and 0.2–0.5 µm wide and 1.2–2.0 µm long. Growth occurs at 18–37 °C (optimum, 30 °C), pH 6.5–8.0 (optimum, pH 7.0) and 0–1.0% NaCl. Strain BR5-29T does not hydrolyze Tween-80, starch, casein, xylan, CM-cellulose, and DNase agar. In API kit (ZYM, 32GN, and 20NE), positive for alkaline phosphatase, lipase (C14), leucine arylamidase, naphthol-AS-BI-phosphohydrolase, α-glucosidase, β-glucosidase, N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase, β-and galactosidase. List of all negative traits of commercial kits is shown in Table S1. The polar lipids are phosphatidylglycerol (PG), diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and five unidentified polar lipids (L1–L5), two unidentified amino-lipid (AL1-AL2) and one unidentified aminophospholipid (APL). The DNA G+C content is 37.6 mol%.

The reference strain, BR5-29 (= KACC 18745 = LMG 30462), was isolated from soil of ginseng field in Korea Republic.