Construction of phylogenetic trees based on the 16S rRNA gene and partial sequences of four protein-coding genes, rpoB, gyrB, infB, and atpD (multilocus sequence analysis, MLSA) showed a distinct clustering of strain JM-387T with Kosakonia sacchari. DNA-DNA hybridizations between JM-387T and the type strains of most similar Kosakonia/“Enterobacter” species including K. sacchari LMG 26783T, “E. oryzendophyticus” LMG 26432T, K. radicincitans D5/23T, K. oryzae LMG 24251T, E. cancerogenus LMG 2693T, and E. cloacae subsp. dissolvens CCUG 25230T were in the range of 14.4–60.2%. The average nucleotide identity (ANI) of the genome sequence of the new strain to K. sacchari SP1T was 94.47%.
Strain JM-387T had a typical enterobacterial fatty acid pattern consisting of the major fatty acids C16:0, C16:1 ω7c/C16:1 ω6c/C15:0 2OH, C18:1 ω7c/C18:1 ω6c with C14:0 3-OH as hydroxylated fatty acid.
Genotypic data and the differentiating biochemical and chemotaxonomic properties showed that strain JM-387T represents a novel species of the genus Kosakonia, for which the name Kosakonia pseudosacchari sp. nov. (type strain JM-387T = CIP 110597T = DSM 27151T) is proposed.