A light-yellow coloured, Gram-stain negative, rod-shaped, aerobic, non-motile bacterium, designated THG-DN6.8(T), was isolated from a lotus pond near Donghaksa temple in Daejeon, South Korea. The strain was found to grow well on nutrient agar, optimally at pH 6.0-7.5, at temperature 25-28 °C and in the presence of 0.5 % NaCl. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain THG-DN6.8(T) was found to share the highest sequence similarity with Pedobacter koreensis KCTC 12536(T), followed by Pedobacter glacialis CCTCC AB 2012941(T), Pedobacter kyungheensis KACC 16221(T), Pedobacter caeni LMG 22862(T), Pedobacter insulae KCTC 12820(T) and Pedobacter boryungensis KCTC 23344 (T). The DNA G+C content was determined to be 36.8 mol%. In DNA-DNA hybridization tests, the DNA relatedness between strain THG-DN6.8(T) and its closest phylogenetic neighbour P. koreensis was found to be below 10 %. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was identified as menaquinone MK-7 and the major polar lipid as phosphatidylethanolamine. The major fatty acids of strain THG-DN6.8(T) were identified as iso-C15:0, C16:0, C18:0 and C16:1 ω6c and/or C16:1 ω7c (summed feature 3). On the basis of the phenotypic characteristics, genotypic analysis and chemotaxonomic characteristics, strain THG-DN6.8(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Pedobacter, for which the name Pedobacter lotistagni sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is THG-DN6.8(T) (= KCTC 42229(T) = JCM 30354(T)).
