A Gram-negative, aerobic, motile with paired polar flagella and rod-shaped bacterium strain (56D2T) was isolated from tobacco planting soil in Yunnan, PR China. Major fatty acids were C16 : 1 ω7c (summed feature 3), C16 : 0 and C18 : 1 ω7c (summed feature 8). The polar lipid profile of strain 56D2T consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, one unidentified aminophospholipid and one unidentified glycolipid. Moreover, strain 56D2T contained ubiquinone Q-8 as the sole respiratory quinone. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain 56D2T was closely related to members of the genus Ralstonia and the two type strains with the highest sequence identities were R. mannitolilytica LMG 6866T (98.36 %) and R. pickettii K-288T (98.22 %). The 16S rRNA gene sequence identities between strain 56D2T and other members of the genus Ralstonia were below 98.00 %. Genome sequencing revealed a genome size of 5.87 Mb and a G+C content of 63.7 mol%. The average nucleotide identity values between strain 56D2T and R. pickettii K-288T, R. mannitolilytica LMG 6866 T and R. insidiosa CCUG 46789T were less than 95 %, and the in silico DNA-DNA hybridization values (yielded by formula 2) were less than 70 %. Based on these data, we conclude that strain 56D2T represents a novel species of the genus Ralstonia, for which the name Ralstonia wenshanensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Ralstonia wenshanensis sp. nov. is 56D2T (=CCTCC AB 2021466T=GDMCC 1.2886T=JCM 35178T).
Keywords: Burkholderiaceae; Ralstonia; Ralstonia species complex; average nucleotide identity; in silico DNA-DNA hybridization.