Arthrobacter cupressi sp. nov., an actinomycete isolated from the rhizosphere soil of Cupressus sempervirens

Abstract

An actinobacterial strain, designated D48T, was isolated from the rhizosphere soil of a cypress tree collected from Mianyang in Sichuan province, China. The strain was Gram-stain-positive, catalase-positive, oxidase-negative and non-motile, with lysine as the peptidoglycan diagnostic diamino acid and acetyl as the peptidoglycan acyl type. The predominant menaquinone was MK-9(H2); small amounts of MK-7(H2), MK-10(H2) and MK-6 were also present. The major fatty acids were anteiso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C17 : 0 and iso-C16 : 0. The isolate underwent a rod–coccus morphological cycle, had a high DNA G+C content, was aerobic and grew between 12 and 37 °C (optimum, 28 °C). On the basis of the phenotypic and chemotaxonomic analyses, 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons and DNA–DNA hybridization data, the isolate represents a novel species of the genus Arthrobacter , for which the name Arthrobacter cupressi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is D48T ( = DSM 24664T = CGMCC 1.10783T).