Representative isolates of Rhizobium anhuiense sp. nov., isolated from effective nodules of Vicia faba and Pisum sativum grown in Southern China. Rhizobium anhuiense strain:CCBAU 23252

Four rhizobia, isolated from root nodules of Pisum sativum and Vicia faba grown in Jiangxi and Anhui Provinces of China, were grouped into the genus Rhizobium but were distinct from all recognized Rhizobium species by phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA and housekeeping genes. The combined sequence of housekeeping genes atpD and recA was 86.7% to 93.7% similar to those of all known Rhizobium species. The ANI between the novel strains of CCBAU 23252T and CCBAU 33602 and representatives of the most closely related species are all below 92%. All the four strains had nodC and nifH genes and could form effective nodules with Pisum sativum and Vicia faba, and ineffective nodules with Phaseolus vulgaris, but did not nodulate Glycine max, Arachis hypogaea, Medicago sativa, Trifolium repens or Lablab purpureus in cross-nodulation tests. Fatty acid composition, DNA-DNA relatedness and a series of phenotypic tests also separated these strains from the closely related species. Based on all the evidence, we propose a novel species Rhizobium anhuiense sp. nov., and designate CCBAU 23252T (=CGMCC 1.12621T =LMG 27729T) as the type strain. This was isolated from a root nodule of Vicia faba and has a GC content of 62.19 % (Tm). Genomic DNA from three representative strains was sequenced using Ion Torrent PGM.