Nocardioides dongkuii sp. nov. and Nocardioides lijunqiniae sp. nov., isolated from faeces of Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii) and leaves of dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), respectively, on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Abstract

In the present study, four bacterial strains, two (S-713 T and 406) isolated from faecal samples of Tibetan antelopes and the other two (S-531 T and 1598) from leaves of dandelion collected on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau of PR China, were analysed using a polyphasic approach. All four isolates were aerobic, rod-shaped, non-motile, oxidase-negative, Gram-stain-positive and catalase-positive. According to four phylogenetic trees, strain pairs S-713 T /406 and S-531 T /1598 form two independent branches belonging to the genus Nocardioides , and are closest to Nocardioides lianchengensis , Nocardioides dokdonensis , Nocardioides salarius , Nocardioides marinisabuli , Nocardioides psychrotolerans and Nocardioides szechwanensis . Although sharing MK8-(H 4 ) as their major isoprenoid quinone, strains S-713 T and S-531 T contained C 18 : 1  ω 9 c (24.64 and 16.34 %) and iso-C 16 : 0 (9.74 and 29.38 %), respectively, as their main fatty acids, with remarkable differences in their biochemical profiles but only slight ones in their optimal growth conditions. The chromosomes of strains S-713 T and S-531 T were 4 207 844 bp (G+C content, 73.0 mol%) and 4 809 817 bp (G+C content, 72.5 mol%), respectively. Collectively, the two strain pairs represent two separate novel species of the genus Nocardioides , for which the names Nocardioides dongkuii sp. nov. and Nocardioides lijunqiniae sp. nov. are proposed, with S-713 T (=JCM 33698 T =CGMCC 4.7660 T ) and S-531 T (=JCM 33468 T =CGMCC 4.7659 T ) as the respective type strains.