Gram-staining and other phenotypic characteristics were determined to the methods described . 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.