Paenibacillus allorhizoplanae sp. nov. from the rhizoplane of a Zea mays root

A Gram-positive staining, aerobic, endospore-forming bacterial strain, isolated from the rhizosphere of Zea mays was studied for its detailed taxonomic allocation. Based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity comparisons, strain JJ-42 was shown to be a member of the genus Paenibacillus, most closely related to the type strain of Paenibacillus pectinilyticus (98.8%). The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to all other Paenibacillus species was below 98.5%. The pairwise average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA−DNA hybridization (dDDH) values of the JJ-42 genome assembly against publicly available Paenibacillus type strain genomes were below 92% and 47%, respectively. The quinone system of strain JJ-42 consisted exclusively of menaquinone MK-7. The polar lipid profile consisted of the major components diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, three aminophospholipids (APL), and one unidentified lipid. The major fatty acids were iso- and anteiso-branched with the major compound anteiso C. Physiological and biochemical characteristics allowed a further phenotypic differentiation of strain JJ-42 from the most closely related species. Thus, JJ-42 represents a novel species of the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus allorhizoplanae sp. nov. is proposed, with JJ-42 (= LMG 32089 = CCM 9085 = DSM 111786 = CIP 111891) as the type strain.