Paenibacillus zeirhizosphaerae sp. nov., isolated from surface of the maize (Zea mays) roots in a horticulture field, Hungary.

A novel Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped, endospore-forming bacterium with peritrichous flagella, designated as P96^T was isolated from the surface of maize roots. Strain P96^T grew optimally at 28 °C, pH 7.0. The strain contained A1γ meso-Dpm-direct in the cell-wall peptidoglycan. The dominant polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol. The genome size of strain P96^T was 4.8 Mb, and the G+C content was 50.01%. Phylogenomic analyses based on the whole-genome sequences classified the strain into the genus Paenibacillus. The digital DNA-DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity relatedness analysis resulted in values below the threshold for prokaryotic species delineation, with the highest values observed for Paenibacillus enshidis KCTC 33519^T (29.4 and 85.2%, respectively). Genotypic data together with phenotypic properties supported the classification of strain P96^T as representative of a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus zeirhizosphaerae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is P96^T (=LMG 32802^T = NCAIM B 02678^T).