In the present study, a yellow-pigmented, Gram-negative, short rod-shaped novel bacterium that was capable of degrading a wide range of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (naphthalene, phenanthrene and pyrene) was isolated from agricultural soil located in Yunlin County, Taiwan. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis positioned the novel strain in the genus Sphingomonas as an independent lineage adjacent to a subclade containing Sphingomonas fennica K101 T , Sphingomonas histidinilytica UM2

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... , Sphingomonas wittichii RW1 T and Sphingomonas haloaromaticamans A175 T . 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis of strain CC-Nfb-2 T showed highest sequence similarity to S. fennica K101 T (96.2 %), S. histidinilytica UM2 T (96.1 %), S. wittichii RW1 T (95.9 %), S. haloaromaticamans A175 T (95.7 %), and Sphingobium ummariense RL-3 T (94.7 %); lower sequence similarities were observed with strains of all other Sphingomonas species. The strain contained phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, sphingoglycolipid and diphosphatidylglycerol. The predominant fatty acids were summed feature 8 (C 18 : 1 v7c and/or C 18 : 1 v6c) C 16 : 0 and 11-methyl C 18 : 1 v7c; C 14 : 0 2-OH was the major 2-hydroxy fatty acid. Previously, these lipids have been found to be characteristic of members of the genus Sphingomonas. The serine palmitoyl transferase gene (spt) was also detected and sphingolipid synthesis was confirmed. The predominant isoprenoid quinone system was ubiquinone (Q-10) and the isolate contained sym-homospermidine as the major polyamine. The DNA G+C content of the isolate was 62.8±0.8 mol%. On the basis of chemotaxonomic, phenotypic and phylogenetic data, strain CC-Nfb-2 T represents a novel species within the genus Sphingomonas, for which the name Sphingomonas formosensis sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain is CC-Nfb-2 T (5BCRC 80272 T 5DSM 24164 T ).