Microlunatus ginsengisoli sp. nov., isolated from soil of a ginseng field

Abstract

A Gram-positive, aerobic, coccus-shaped, non-endospore-forming bacterium (Gsoil 633T) was isolated from soil from a ginseng field in Pocheon province in South Korea. The novel isolate was characterized in order to determine its taxonomic position. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities, strain Gsoil 633T was shown to belong to the family Propionibacteriaceae. The closest phylogenetic relative was Microlunatus phosphovorus DSM 19555T, with 96.1 % sequence similarity; the sequence similarity to other members of the family was less than 95.4 %. The isolate was characterized chemotaxonomically as having ll-2,6-diaminopimelic acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan, MK-9(H4) as the predominant menaquinone and anteiso-C15 : 0, iso-C15 : 0 and iso-C16 : 0 as the major fatty acids. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 69.8 mol%. The morphological and chemotaxonomic properties of the isolate were consistent with those of M. phosphovorus, but the results of physiological and biochemical tests allowed the phenotypic differentiation of strain Gsoil 633T from this species. Therefore, strain Gsoil 633T represents a novel species, for which the name Microlunatus ginsengisoli sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Gsoil 633T (=KCTC 13940T=DSM 17942T).