“
Corynebacterium aquaticum” was first proposed by Leifson in 1962 but not included in the approved lists of bacterial names in 1980. This species has been left from reclassification of the genus
Corynebacterium because of the unusual chemotaxonomic characteristics such as 2,4-diaminobutyric acid (DAB) in the peptidoglycan and menaquinones of MK-10 and MK-11. A close relationship of “
C. aquaticum” to the genera
Agromyces and
Rathayibacter has been pointed out from the viewpoint of chemotaxonomic profiles and phylogeny based on the 16S rDNA sequences. An analysis of DAB isomers of the peptidoglycan distinguished “
C. aquaticum” clearly from these genera by possessing both
L-DAB and
D-DAB. We also found that the type strain of
Clavibacter xyli subsp.
cynodontis and two strains of amine-decomposing bacteria showed the similar chemotaxonomic features and formed a cluster with “
C. aquaticum” in the phylogenetic tree based on 16S rDNA sequences in the family
Microbacteriaceae. Considering these results, we propose a new genus
Leifsonia to accommodate the four strains. The four species,
Leifsonia aquatica sp. nov., nom. rev., comb. nov. (type species, type strain=JCM 1368),
Leifsonia shinshuensis sp. nov. (type strain=DB102=JCM 10591),
Leifsonia naganoensis sp. nov. (type strain=DB103=JCM 10592), and
Leifsonia cynodontis comb. nov. (type strain=JCM 9733=ICMP 8790), were proposed here for the strains.
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