Nocardioides albertanoniae sp. nov., isolated from Roman catacombs

Abstract

A Gram-reaction-positive, aerobic, non-spore-forming, rod- or coccoid-shaped, strain, CD40127T, was isolated from a green biofilm covering the wall of the Domitilla Catacombs in Rome, Italy. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain CD40127T belongs to the genus Nocardioides , closely related to Nocardioides luteus DSM 43366T and Nocardioides albus DSM 43109T with 98.86 % and 98.01 % similarity values, respectively. Strain CD40127T exhibited 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values below 96.29 % with the rest of the species of the genus Nocardioides . The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 69.7 mol%. The predominant fatty acid was iso-C16 : 0 and the major menaquinone was MK-8(H4) in accordance with the phenotypes of other species of the genus Nocardioides . A polyphasic approach using physiological tests, fatty acid profiles, DNA base ratios and DNA–DNA hybridization showed that isolate CD40127T represents a novel species within the genus Nocardioides , for which the name Nocardioides albertanoniae is proposed. The type strain is CD40127T ( = DSM 25218T = CECT 8014T).