Gram-staining and other phenotypic characteristicsอwere determined according to the methods described by Dong & Cai (2001) and Gao et al. (1994). Discriminative features between the novel isolate and its closest relatives
are detailed in Table 1 and in the species description below. Strain J3-A127T could be distinguished on the basis of
these characteristics from representatives of its closest phylogenetic relatives, namely Rhizobium oryzae Alt 505T,
Rhizobium sullae IS123T, Rhizobium mesosinicum CCBAU 25010T and Rhizobium yanglingense CCBAU 71623T.