A Gram-stain negative, rod-shaped, aerobic bacterial strain, designated TA-C7eT, was isolated from an agricultural soil obtained from Taean region, Korea. Phylogenetically, the strain was grouped with the genus Massilia and shared 95.33-97.97% 16S rRNA sequence similarity with the type strains of other species of the genus Massilia. The DNA-DNA hybridisation between TA-C7eT and Massilia haematophila KACC 13771T, Massilia suwonesis KACC 12635T, and Massilia yuzhufengensis KACC 16569T revealed a low level of relatedness (<40%). The low levels of DNA-DNA hybridisation values identified strain TA-C7eT as a novel species in the genus Massilia. The major fatty acids of the strain were C16:0 (37.3%) and summed feature 3 (C16:1 ω7c and/or C16:1 ω6c) (40.6%). Q-8 was identified as the only isoprenoid quinone. The polar lipids profile of the strain showed the presence of phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, an unidentified aminophospholipid and three unidentified lipids. The DNA G+C content of the strain was found to be 63.2 mol%. On the basis of the phenotypic, genotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, strain TA-C7eT represents a novel species in the genus Massilia, for which the name Massilia chloroacetimidivorans sp. nov. (=KACC 18674T = NBRC 112463T) is proposed.
Keywords: DNA–DNA hybridisation; Massilia chloroacetimidivorans; Novel species; Polyphasic taxonomy.