A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile bacterial strain, 7Y-4 T , was isolated from bark tissue of Populus euramericana. The isolate was able to grow between 10 and 37 C, with optimal growth occurring at 28-30 C. Strain 7Y-4 T was positive for oxidase and catalase activities, but did not reduce nitrite from nitrate. Positive reactions were observed for the activities of b-galactosidase, urease and b-glucosidase, but negative reactions for the activities of gelatinase and the production of

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... dole, acetoin and H 2 S. Citrate was not utilized. The major fatty acids of strain 7Y-4 T are iso-C 15 : 0 (28.6 %), C 16 : 1 !7c/C 16 : 1 !6c (31.8 %) and iso-C 17 : 0 3-OH (23.3 %).The major polar lipids of the novel isolate include phosphatidylethanolamine, three unknown phospholipids (PL1-3) and six unknown lipids (L1-6), and the predominant menaquinone is MK-7. The DNA G+C content is 41.7 mol%. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the novel isolate shared the greatest sequence similarity with Sphingobacterium hotanense XH4 T (93.50 %). On the basis of phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, strain 7Y-4 T represents a novel species of the genus Sphingobacterium, for which the name Sphingobacterium populi is proposed. The type strain is 7Y-4 T (=CFCC 11742 T =KCTC 42247 T ). Abbreviations: ANI, average nucleotide identity; POCP, percentage of conserved proteins. The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the 16S rRNA gene and genome sequence of strain 7Y-4 T are KT988032 and LQXS00000000, respectively.