Sphingobacterium prati sp. nov., isolated from agricultural soil and involved in lignocellulose deconstruction

A bacterial strain, arapr2(T), was isolated from agricultural soil sampled in Reims, France. Based on its 16S rRNA gene sequence, the strain was affiliated to the family Sphingobacteriaceae and more specifically to the genus Sphingobacterium . The strain had 98.31 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to its closest relative Sphingobacterium canadense CR11(T) and 98.25 % to Sphingobacterium pakistanensis NCCP-246(T). Genome relatedness indexes revealed that the average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA–DNA hybridization (dDDH) values between arapr2(T) and its closest relative ( S. canadense CR11(T)) were 92.97 % and 52.00 %, respectively; for S. pakistanensis NCCP-246(T), the ANI and dDDH values were 82.46 and 27.6%, respectively. The genomic DNA of strain arapr2(T) was 6.02 Mbp long, had a DNA G+C content of 40.4 mol% and had 5504 protein-coding genes. The results obtained in this study suggests that strain arapr2(T) (CIP 111872(T)=LMG 31848(T)) represents a new species for which the name Sphingobacterium prati sp. nov. is proposed. Due to the fact that this strain has been isolated using wheat straw as carbon source, this novel bacterial strain represents a promising biotechnological tool for the fractionation of lignocellulosic biomass in the context of biorefinery development.