Morphology, physiology and biochemical analysis
Strain ROOL2T was isolated from the roots of rice plant, collected in South Korea. Cells were Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped with no flagella (Fig. S1), non-spore forming and catalase and oxidase negative. Colonies of strain ROOL2T were white to yellow, circular, convex and round, produces slimy and mucoid appearance on R2A agar plates after 3–4 days of cultivation at 30℃ (Fig. 1). Some bacteria produce slime to adhere and float as colonial masses in their environments, thereby forming a protected environment for themselves (Wold P-A et al. 2014). On Luria-bertani agar they showed yellow colonies and produces carotenoid-type pigments but they doesn’t produced slime material. In opposite they showed white colonies on R2A agar and doesn’t produces carotenoid pigment but produces slime materials. The absorption spectrum of the pigments extracted exhibited the characteristic profile of carotenoids with three absorption peaks at 426 nm, 451 nm and 481 nm (Fig. 1). The ability of the strain ROOL2T to produce carotenoid pigments expands the possibility of its use for industrial applications. Growth occurred at 20–35℃ (optimum 30℃), and at pH 5.5–8.5 (optimum 7.5). Strain ROOL2T did not require NaCl but tolerated upto 6.0% (w/v) NaCl with an optimum at 0%. Moreover, strain ROOL2T was not able to hydrolyze chitin, casein, starch and CM-cellulose. In 20NE kit, nitrate reduction and hydrolysis of esculin was occur. The strain was negative for indole production, glucose fermentation and hydrolysis of gelatin and β-galactosidase. Assimilation of arginine dihydrolase, D-glucose, D-mannose, D-mannitol, D-maltose, L-arabinose, N-Acetyl-D-glucosamine, potassium gluconate, capric acid, adipic acid, malic acid, trisodium citrate and phenylacetic acid were not found. Assessment of enzyme activities using the API ZYM kit revealed strain ROOL2T was positive for alkaline phosphatase, esterase (C4), esterase lipase (C8), leucine arylamidase, trypsin, acid phosphatase, napthtol-AS-BI-phosphohydrolase, α-glucosidase and β-glucosidase. However it was negative for lipase (C14), valline arylamidase, cystine arylamidase, α-chymotrypsin, α-galactosidase, β-galactosidase, β-glucuronidase, N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase, α-mannosidase and α-fucosidase. The morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics of strain ROOL2T exhibited a numerous phenotypic differences from closely related members e.g., production of watery slimy materials by strain ROOL2T, production of carotenoid-type pigments only on LB agar, its growth range, the NaCl concentration required for its growth which is higher than other members and its inability to assimilate almost all substrates in 20NE kit (Table 1). In addition, in API ZYM, the ability to show a positive reaction for alkaline phosphatase and leucine arylamidase differentiated strain ROOL2T from other reference members. Strain ROOL2T was only negative for oxidase activity. Moreover, it could hydrolyze esculin, while the other two reference strains could not. Strain ROOL2T was unable to ferment glucose and could not assimilate adipic acid. These characteristics differentiate it from the other reference strains. More phenotypic and biochemical characteristics that differentiate the novel strain ROOL2T from its closely related members are presented in Table 1. The non-motility of strain ROOL2T and the absence of motility and chemotaxis genes only in this strain is the mainly differenciate it from the other members within the family Phyllobacteriaceae (Table S1).
Phylogenetic, core gene phylogeny analyses and genomic features
The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity indicated that strain ROOL2T was most closely related to T. sediminis Z8T (96.5%) followed by M. tamadayense DSM 28320T (96.4%), M. mediterraneum USDA 3392T (96.2%) and A. soli NK8T (96.1%), however, phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences suggested that strain ROOL2T did not belong to any existing genera but formed a distinct phyletic lineage within the family Phyllobacteriaceae in neighbour-joining tree (Fig. 2). Furthermore, phylogenetic trees including those reconstructed by maximum-likelihood (Fig. S2) maximum-parsimony (Fig. S3) and phylogenomic tree algorithms (Fig. S4), formed a similar results in which strain ROOL2T makes a separate lineage, which clearly indicating that strain ROOL2T is a novel member within the family Phyllobacteriaceae at genus level.
The genome size of strain ROOL2T was 4.89 Mb; it consisted of 28 contigs with N50 and L50 values of 656,326 and 3, respectively. The genome was found to have a coverage of 151.0x. The DNA G + C content was 61.5%, this value is within the range reported for members belonging to the family Phyllobacteriaceae. The calculated ANI, AAI and dDDH values between strain ROOL2T and the closely related members T. sediminis Z8T and M. tamadayense DSM 28320T are shown in Table 2. The phylogenomic tree based on the concatenated alignment of 92 core genes provided further evidence regarding the independent lineage of strain ROOL2T (Fig. S4) similar conclusions were drawn from other three trees constructed using 16S rRNA sequences. Strain ROOL2T shared 72.9 and 76.5% ANI, 19.4 and 21.3% dDDH, 64.3 and 67.7 % AAI values with T. sediminis Z8T (96.5% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity) and M. tamadayense DSM 28320T (96.4% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), respectively, these values are far below the thresholds (95–96% for ANI, 70% for dDDH and 6.80 % for AAI) proposed for bacterial species demarcation (Meier-Kolthoff et al. 2018; Goris et al. 2007; Richter et al. 2009; Qin et al. 2014). In the past, AAI values of 60–80% were considered thresholds for distinguishing genera however, recent studies on new genus descriptions within the family Comamonadaceae and other phylum have proposed that the threshold for genus boundaries should be 70% for AAI (Ding et al. 2019; Xu et al. 2020). All the AAI values were found to be lower than the proposed genus boundary threshold, the ANI and dDDH values clearly indicated that strain ROOL2T is a novel member within the family Phyllobacteriaceae (Table 2). The phylogenomic tree constructed on the basis of the concatenated alignment of 92 core genes also confirmed the finding (Fig. S4).
The result of antiSMASH revealed that strain ROOL2T contains six biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) in its genome including bacteriocin, NAGGN, betalactone, arylpolyene, terpene and hserlactone with a similarity value of 63%, 28%, 78%, 61%, 90% and 69%, respectively. RAST analysis revealed the presence of 322 subsystems and five secondary metabolism gene clusters for auxin biosynthesis. Four striking gene clusters for the synthesis of tryptophan (Trp) were found: kynA (tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase; NZ_JACVVX010000003), trpB (tryptophan synthase subunit beta; NZ_JACVVX010000002.1), trpS (tryptophan–tRNA ligase, NZ_JACVVX010000001.1) and trpC (indole-3-glycerol phosphate synthase; NZ_JACVVX010000005.1). In addition one gene cluster for indole-3-glycerol phosphate synthase TrpC (JACVVX010000005) were also found. Bacterial IAA increase root surface area and length, and thereby provides the plant greater access to soil nutrients and water uptake. Trp is the main precursor for IAA and auxin biosynthesis in microorganisms (Sessitsch et al. 2004). As the novel strain ROOL2T was isolated from the roots of rice plants, it can be directly or indirectly responsible for promoting the growth of rice plants. In addition our experimental results also showed the production of IAA by strain ROOL2T in the presence of tryptophan.
Chemotaxonomic characterisation
The major fatty acid detected in strain ROOL2T were C18 :1ω7c and summed feature 4 (comprising iso-C17:1 I and/or anteiso-C17:1 B) and summed feature 8 (comprising C18:1ω6c and/or C18:1ω7c) which differed from those detected the reference strains (Table 3). The presence of C18:1ω7c as a major fatty acid in strain ROOL2T and its absence in the closest reference strain T. sediminis Z8T is the major difference between two strains. In addition, the absence of other minor fatty acids such as C16:0 and iso-C15:0 3OH in strain ROOL2T distinguishes it from T. sediminis Z8T. Similar to other members belonging to the family Phyllobacteriacea, Q-10 was the predominant isoprenoid quinone in strain ROOL2T. The polar lipid profile of strain ROOL2T consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylmethylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, one unidentified aminolipid and two unidentified lipids (Fig S5). The major polar lipid profile such as diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylmethylethanolamine were similar to other reference strains however the presence of other minor lipids could distinguish the strain ROOL2T from other close members.
IAA production
Slightly change in color showed that strain ROOL2T can produce IAA in the absence of L-tryptophan also but in lower concentration. Strain ROOL2T changed color into pink in media added with L-tryptophan (Fig S6). This result showed that strain ROOL2T required L-tryptophan for the production of IAA.
From this study, it is clear that rhizospheric strain ROOL2T has the ability to produce a significant amount of IAA in a tryptophan-supplemented medium. Isolation of IAA producing bacteria prevent environmental pollution by avoiding excessive applications of industrially produced fertilizers to cultivated fields. Moreover, the low values of ANI, dDDH and AAI values indicated that, strain ROOL2T represents a distinct species within this novel genus. Based on the aforementioned findings, we propose that strain ROOL2T represents a novel genus in the family Phyllobacteriaceae, for which the name Oryzicola mucosus gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed.
Description of Oryzicola mucosus gen. nov.
Oryzicola gen. nov. (O.ry.zi'co.la. L. n. oryza, rice; L. suff -cola, inhabtant, dweller; N.L. masc. n. Oryzicola, an inhabitant of rice).
Cells are Gram-stain negative, aerobic, asporogenous, rod shaped, non-flagellated, non-motile, catalase and oxidase negative. Colonies on R2A agar are white in colour and produce watery slimy materials however, colonies on LB agar are yellow and produced carotenoid pigments. The bacterium reduces nitrate to nitrite. It contains Q-10 as the sole respiratory quinone. The main cellular fatty acids are the major cellular fatty acids are C18 :1ω7c, summed feature 4 (comprising iso-C17:1 I and/or anteiso-C17:1 B) and summed feature 8 (comprising C18:1ω6c and/or C18:1ω7c). The polar lipid profile consists of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylmethylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, one unidentified aminolipid and two unidentified lipids. Cells can produce IAA in the presence of L-tryptophan. The DNA G + C content of the type strain belonging to the type species is 63.5%. Based on phylogenetic analysis, the genus belongs to the family Phyllobacteriaceae within the phylum Proteobacteria. The type species is Oryzicola mucosus.
Description of Oryzicola mucosus sp. nov.
O. mucosus sp. nov. (mu.co'sus. L. masc. adj. mucosus, slimy)
Cells are Gram-stain negative, oxidase and catalase negative, non-motile and rod-shaped (0.8-1.0 µm length and 0.5–0.8 µm in width). Colonies on R2A agar are white coloured and produces watery slimy materials. However, colonies on LB agar are yellow and produced carotenoid-type pigments. They only produced carotenoid-type pigments on LB agar and slime material on R2A agar. IAA was produced in the presence of tryptophan. The optimum growth temperature is 28–30℃; growth occurs at 20–35℃. The bacterium shows good growth on R2A and LB agars and moderate growth on MA, TSA and NA. It does not hydrolyze casein, starch, carboxymethyl-cellulose, and chitin. It reduces nitrate. Flexirubin-type pigments were not produced. The major cellular fatty acids are C18 :1ω7c, summed feature 4 (comprising iso-C17:1 I and/or anteiso-C17:1 B) and summed feature 8 (comprising C18:1ω6c and/or C18:1ω7c). Q-10 is the predominant isoprenoid quinone. The polar lipid profile consist of diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylmethylethanolamine (PME), one unidentified aminolipid and two unidentified lipids. The DNA G + C content of the type strain is 61.5%.
The type strain is ROOL2T (= KCTC 82711T = NBRC 114717T), which was isolated from the roots of rice plant near Ilsan Province, South Korea. The draft genome and 16S rRNA gene sequences of strain ROOL2T have been deposited in GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ under accession numbers JACVVX000000000 and MN904860 respectively.