Neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene fragments showing the relationship between linuron-degrading and nonlinuron-degrading Variovorax spp. from this study and the literature. Linuron-degrading isolates are indicated with a black square; and 3,4-DCA-degrading isolates, with a black triangle. The large black triangle covers 67 randomly selected sequences of Variovorax spp. The Comamonas testosteroni type strain M11224 was used as outgroup. GenBank accession numbers are indicated in parentheses. The statistics based on bootstrapping with 1000 replications are indicated at the nodes of each branch.