sp. nov., a pathogen causing head rot of broccoli in Japan.

Phytopathogenic bacteria, MAFF 212426, MAFF 212427, MAFF 212428 and MAFF 212429, were isolated from head rot lesions of broccoli ( L. var. Plenck) in Hokkaido, Japan, and subjected to polyphasic taxonomic characterization. The cells were Gram-reaction-negative, aerobic, non-spore-forming, motile with one or two polar flagella, rod-shaped and formed pale yellow colonies. Results of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that they belong to the genus with the highest similarity to '' JJ3 (99.86 %), GSL-010 (99.22 %), WCHPs060044 (99.01 %), NBRC 103040 (98.87 %) and KL28 (98.73 %). The genomic DNA G+C content was 63.4 mol% and the major fatty acids (>5 % of the total fatty acids) were summed feature 3 (C ω7 / C ω6), C, summed feature 8 (C ω7 / C ω6) and C cyclo. Multilocus sequence analysis using the partial , and gene sequences and phylogenomic analyses based on the whole genome sequences demonstrated that the strains are members of the group, but form a monophyletic, robust clade separated from their closest relatives. Average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) values corroborated their novel species status, with 88.39 % (ANI) and 35.8 % (dDDH) as the highest scores with '' JJ3. The strains were differentiated from their closest relatives by phenotypic characteristics, pathogenicity on broccoli, and whole-cell MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry profiles. The phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and genotypic data showed that the strains represent a novel species, for which the name sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is MAFF 212427 (=ICMP 23635).