Reclassification of Sphingobium baderi Kaur et al. 2013 as a Later Heterotypic Synonym of Sphingobium wenxiniae Wang et al. 2011

In the present study, the metabolic potential and taxonomic status of Sphingobium baderi and Sphingobium wenxiniae were evaluated through genome analysis. Genome-based metabolic analysis revealed that Sphingobium wenxiniae JZ-1ᵀ and Sphingobium baderi LL03ᵀ possess genes associated with xenobiotic biodegradation and stress response. Comparisons of genome-derived 16S rRNA gene sequences, phylogenetic, average nucleotide identity (ANI), average amino acid identity (AAI) and digital DNA–DNA hybridization (dDDH) analysis were performed. The 16S rRNA gene sequence extracted from Sphingobium baderi LL03^T genome showed 99.2% similarity to Sphingobium wenxiniae JZ-1^T. In the phylogenomic trees, Sphingobium baderi LL03^T and Sphingobium wenxiniae JZ-1^T showed no genetic divergence between them. The ANI and dDDH values between Sphingobium baderi LL03^T and Sphingobium wenxiniae JZ-1^T were above the cut-off (95–96% for ANI and 70% for dDDH) for species delineation. Based on the above results, we propose to reclassify Sphingobium baderi Kaur et al. 2013 as a later heterotypic synonym of Sphingobium wenxiniae Wang et al. 2011.