Spelaeicoccus albus gen. nov., sp. nov., an actinobacterium isolated from a natural cave

Abstract

A novel Gram-stain-positive, non-endospore-forming, coccoid actinobacterium, designated strain D3-40T, was isolated from the soil of a natural cave and characterized by means of a polyphasic taxonomic analysis. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain D3-40T is a member of the suborder Micrococcineae and forms a distinct branch at the base of a Brevibacteriaceae cluster. Its closest relative is the type strain of Brevibacterium samyangense (95.7 % sequence similarity). The chemotaxonomic characteristics were as follows: the cell-wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid; the major menaquinone was MK-9(H2); the polar lipids consisted of phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, an unknown glycolipid and an unknown phospholipid; the major fatty acids were anteiso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C17 : 0, iso-C15 : 0, C16 : 0 and cyclohexyl-C17 : 0; mycolic acids were absent. The G+C content of the DNA was 64.3 mol%. On the basis of morphological, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data, it is suggested that the organism represents a novel species of a new genus within the family Brevibacteriaceae , for which the name Spelaeicoccus albus gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of the type species is D3-40T ( = KCTC 29141T = DSM 26341T).