Reclassification of Serpens flexibilis Hespell 1977 as Pseudomonas flexibilis comb. nov., with Pseudomonas tuomuerensis Xin et al. 2009 as a later heterotypic synonym

Serpens flexibilis was proposed in 1977 and approved in 1980 without the 16S rRNA gene sequence information. The sequence of S. flexibilis became available in 2010, after the publication of Pseudomonas tuomuerensis in 2009. Our preliminary phylogenetic analyses indicated that these two strains share high sequence similarity and therefore showed strong potential to be united into a single species. To clarify the taxonomic status of the two species, a polyphasic taxonomy study was conducted including whole genome sequencing. The value of average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) between the genome sequences of S. flexibilis ATCC 29606^T and P. tuomuerensis JCM 14085^T were 98.1% and 89.0%, respectively. The phenotypic and chemotaxonomic properties including enzymatic activities, substrate utilization profiles, and fatty acids, supported that the two taxa have no pronounced difference and should thus constitute a single species. Therefore, we propose to transfer Serpens flexibilis Hespell 1977 to the genus Pseudomonas as Pseudomonas flexibilis comb. nov. (type strain = ATCC 29606^T), with Pseudomonas tuomuerensis Xin et al. 2009 as a later heterotypic synonym of Pseudomonas flexibilis.