Kribbella qitaiheensis sp. nov., a novel actinomycete isolated from soil

Abstract

A novel nocardioform actinomycete, designated strain NEAU-GQTH2-3T, was isolated from muddy soil collected from a stream in Qitaihe, Heilongjiang Province, northeast China and characterized using a polyphasic approach. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence demonstrated that the organism should be assigned to the genus Kribbella and forms a clade with Kribbella catacumbae JCM 14968T (99.2 % sequence similarity), Kribbella koreensis JCM 10977T (99.1 %), Kribbella ginsengisoli JCM 16928T (98.6 %) and Kribbella sancticallisti JCM 14969T (98.4 %), although with low bootstrap support. Morphological and chemotaxonomic properties of the isolate are in agreement with the description of the genus Kribbella. Chemotaxonomic characteristics include LL-diaminopimelic acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan; glucose and ribose as the characteristic whole-cell hydrolysates; diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylinositol, a glycerolipid and an unidentified phospholipid as the predominant polar lipids; the major menaquinones MK-9(H4) and MK-9(H2); as well as iso-C15:0, iso-C16:0 and C17:1 ω7c being the predominant fatty acid components. Mycolic acids were not detected. Furthermore, the strain could be clearly distinguished by the combination of DNA–DNA hybridization results and some phenotypic characteristics from the closest phylogenetic relatives. Therefore, it is proposed that strain NEAU-GQTH2-3T represents a novel species of the genus Kribbella, for which the name Kribbella qitaiheensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NEAU-GQTH2-3T (=CGMCC 4.7215T  =JCM 30343T).