Agrococcus lahaulensis sp. nov., isolated from a cold desert of the Indian Himalayas

• Published in: International journal of systematic and evolutionary microbiology Vol. 56; no. 8; pp. 1807 - 1810
• Main Authors: Mayilraj, S, Suresh, K, Schumann, P, Kroppenstedt, R. M, Saini, H. S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Reading Soc General Microbiol 01.08.2006; Society for General Microbiology
• Subjects: Actinomycetales - classification; Actinomycetales - isolation & purification; Actinomycetales - physiology; Agrococcus lahaulensis; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Bacteriology; Biological and medical sciences; Cold Temperature; Desert Climate; DNA, Bacterial - genetics; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; India; Microbial ecology; Microbiology; Molecular Sequence Data; Phylogeny; RNA, Bacterial - genetics; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics; Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; Soil; Soil Microbiology; Species Specificity; Systematics; Asia; Himalayas; India; Soils; Cold; Taxonomy; Bacteria; Actinomycetes; New species; Desert
• ISSN: 1466-5026; 1466-5034
• DOI: 10.1099/ijs.0.64247-0

1 Microbial Type Culture Collection and Gene Bank (MTCC), Institute of Microbial Technology, Sector 39-A, Chandigarh, 160 036, India 2 DSMZ – Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH, Mascheroder Weg 1b, D-38124 Braunschweig, Germany 3 Department of Microbiology, Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar, 143 005, India Correspondence S. Mayilraj mayil{at}imtech.res.in The taxonomic position of a lemon-yellow-pigmented actinobacterium, strain K22-21 T , isolated from a soil sample from Lahaul-Spiti Valley in the Indian Himalayas, was determined using a polyphasic approach. The strain had phenotypic and chemical properties that were consistent with its classification in the genus Agrococcus . Alignment of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain K22-21 T with sequences from Agrococcus jenensis DSM 9580 T , Agrococcus baldri DSM 14215 T and Agrococcus citreus DSM 12453 T revealed similarities of 98.5, 96.8 and 96.6 %, respectively. However, the level of DNA–DNA relatedness between strain K22-21 T and A. jenensis was 55.1 %. The novel strain could be distinguished from type strains of the three species of the genus Agrococcus using DNA–DNA relatedness and phenotypic data. Based on these differences, strain K22-21 T (=MTCC 7154 T =DSM 17612 T ) should be classified as the type strain of a novel species of Agrococcus , for which the name Agrococcus lahaulensis sp. nov. is proposed. The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain K22-21 T is DQ156908 . The fatty acid compositions of strain K22-21 T and the type strains of the three known Agrococcus species are available as supplementary material in IJSEM Online.