Agrobacterium arsernijevicii sp nov., isolated from crown gall tumors on raspberry and cherry plum

Abstract

Two plant-tumorigenic strains KFB 330(T) and KFB 335 isolated from galls on raspberry (Rubus idaeus) in Serbia, and a non-pathogenic strain AL51.1 recovered from a cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera) tumor in Poland, were genotypically and phenotypically characterized. Phylogenetic reconstruction based on 16S rDNA placed them within the genus Agrobacterium, with A nepotum as their closest relative. Multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) based on the partial sequences of atpD,glnA, gyrB, recA and rpoB housekeeping genes suggested that these three strains represent a new Agrobacterium species, that clustered with type strains of A. nepotum, A. radiobacter, "A fabrum" and A. pusense. This was further supported by average nucleotide identity values ( lt 92%) between the whole genome sequences of strain KFB 3301 and related Agrobacterium species. The major cellular fatty acids of the novel strains were 18:1 w7c (72.8-77.87%) and 16:0 (6.82-8.58%). Phenotypic features allowed their differentiation from closely related species. Polyphasic characterization showed that the three strains represent a novel species of the genus Agrobacterium, for which the name Agrobacterium arsenijevicii sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain ofA. arsenijevicii is KFB 330T (=CFBP 8308(T) = LMG 28674(T)).