A novel Gram-stain positive bacterial strain, GB16₁BI, with 70. 3% G+C content was isolated from rice roots cultivated in the Madhyamgram field station of Bose Institute, West Bengal, India. GB16₁BI is a nonmotile, nitrate reducing, ammonium releasing and plant growth promoting bacteria. The average nucleotide identity-analysis of GB16₁BI showed highest identity with Microbacterium enclense NIO-1002T (ANIb: 82. 55%; ANIm: 87. 51%) and Microbacterium phycohabitans KSW2-29T (ANIb: 82. 53%; ANIm: 86. 79%). Type strain genome server comparison of whole genome sequence of GB16₁BI with genomes sequences for other species of the genus predicted that GB16₁BI as a novel species with the digital DNA-DNA hybridization values of T, 98. 42% similarity with Microbacterium phycohabitans KSW2-29T and 98. 43% with M. enclense NIO-1002T. Whole cell fatty acid analyses showed iso-C16: 0, anteiso-C17: 0 and anteisoC15: 0 as the predominant fatty acids. The strain was designated as Microbacterium bengalense sp. nov GB16₁BIT (=MTCC 13245=JCM 37885).
Nag et al. (Thu,) studied this question.