title: Herbaspirillum lusitanum sp. nov., a novel nitrogen-fixing bacterium associated with root nodules of Phaseolus vulgaris.
abstract: Several bacterial strains were isolated from root nodules of Phaseolus vulgaris plants grown in a soil from Portugal. The strains were Gram-negative, aerobic, curved rod-shaped and motile. The isolates were catalase- and oxidase-positive. The TP-RAPD (two-primer randomly amplified polymorphic DNA) patterns of all strains were identical, suggesting that they belong to the same species. The complete 16S rDNA sequence of a representative strain was obtained and phylogenetic analysis based on the neighbour-joining method indicated that this bacterium belongs to the beta-Proteobacteria and that the closest related genus is Herbaspirillum. The DNA G+C content ranged from 57.9 to 61.9 mol%. Growth was observed with many different carbohydrates and organic acids including caprate, malate, citrate and phenylacetate. No growth was observed with maltose, meso-inositol, meso-erythritol or adipate as sole carbon source. According to the phenotypic and genotypic data obtained in this work, the bacterium represents a novel species of the genus Herbaspirillum, and the name Herbaspirillum lusitanum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is P6-12(T) (=LMG 21710(T)=CECT 5661(T)).
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Producción Vegetal, Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Apartado 257, 37071 Salamanca, Spain.
authors.forename: Angel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Valverde
authors.forename: Encarna
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Velázquez
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gutiérrez
authors.forename: Emilio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cervantes
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ventosa
authors.forename: José-Mariano
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Igual
mesh_terms: D005843:Geography; D042803:Herbaspirillum / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009566:Nitrates / Q000378:metabolism; D009573:Nitrites / Q000378:metabolism; D009586:Nitrogen Fixation; D027805:Phaseolus / Q000382:microbiology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D009566:Nitrates; D009573:Nitrites