Revised phylogeny of Rhizobiaceae: Proposal of the delineation of Pararhizobium gen. nov., and 13 new species combinations

The family Rhizobiaceae accommodates the seven genera Rhizobium, Neorhizobium, Allorhizobium, Agrobacterium, Ensifer (syn. Sinorhizobium), Shinella and Ciceribacter. However, several so-called Rhizobium species do not exhibit robust phylogenetic positions. Rhizobium is extremely heterogeneous and is in need of major revision. Therefore, a phylogenetic examination of the family Rhizobiaceae by multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) of four housekeeping genes among 100 strains of the family was undertaken. Based on the results we propose the delineation of the new genus Pararhizobium in the Rhizobiaceae family, and 13 new species combinations: Agrobacterium nepotum comb. nov., Agrobacterium pusense comb. nov., Agrobacterium skierniewicense comb. nov., Allorhizobium vitis comb. nov., Allorhizobium taibaishanense comb. nov., Allorhizobium paknamense comb. nov., Allorhizobium oryzae comb. nov., Allorhizobium pseudoryzae comb. nov., Allorhizobium borbori comb. nov., Pararhizobium giardinii comb. nov., Pararhizobium capsulatum comb. nov., Pararhizobium herbae comb. nov., and Pararhizobium sphaerophysae comb. nov.