Nakamurella leprariae sp. nov., isolated from a lichen sample.

A novel actinobacterium, YIM 132084T, was isolated from Lepraria sp. lichen collected from Yunnan province, south-west PR China and identified by a polyphasic taxonomic approach. The strain was Gram-stain-positive, aerobic, catalase-positive, oxidase-negative, non-motile and coccus-shaped. Colonies were round, convex, smooth and light orange yellow in color. It grew at 10-40 °C (optimum 28 °C), at pH 6.0-11.0 (optimum pH 7.0) and in the presence of 0-4% NaCl (optimum 0%). Strain YIM 132084T comprised diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylinositol as the major polar lipids, MK-8(H4) as the predominant menaquinone, and anteiso-C15:0, anteiso-C17:0, iso-C15:0 and iso-C16:0 as major fatty acids. Strain YIM 132084T had meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan, and mannose, ribose, glucose and rhamnose as whole-cell sugars. The 16S rRNA gene sequence showed high level of similarity with Nakamurella flavida KCTC 19127T (97.7%) and Nakamurella flava CGMCC 4.7524T (97.7%). The G + C content of the genomic DNA was 72.4 mol%. Based on draft genome sequences, strain YIM 132084T showed an average nucleotide identity value of 76.1% and 74.9%, a digital DNA-DNA hybridization value of 20.9% and 20.6% with the reference strains Nakamurella flavida and Nakamurella flava, respectively. The results of the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analyses showed that strain YIM 132084T represents a novel species of the genus Nakamurella, for which the name Nakamurella leprariae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM 132084T (= CGMCC 4.7667T = NBRC 114280T = KCTC 49367T).

Paracoccus lichenicola sp. nov., Isolated from Lichen.

Strain YIM 132242T, isolated from lichen collected from Pu'er, Yunnan Province, China, was short-rod-shaped, Gram-reaction-negative, aerobic, catalase- and oxidase-positive. Growth of the strain was occurred at 10-39 °C (optimum, 28-35 °C), at pH 4.0-10.0 (optimum, pH 7.0-8.0) and at salinities of 0-8% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0-2%). Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain YIM 132242T belonged to the genus Paracoccus and had the highest levels of sequence similarity to Paracoccus aerius KCTC 42845T (97.0% similarity), Paracoccus sediminis CMB17T (96.8% similarity), and Paracoccus fontiphilus MVW-1T (96.4% similarity). The major fatty acid was identified as C18:1 ω7c (77.6%). The predominant respiratory quinone was ubiquinone-10 (Q-10). Polar lipid analysis indicated the presence of phosphatidylglycerol (PG), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylcholine (PC), diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG), an unidentified lipid (L), and three unidentified phospholipids (PL1-PL3). Based on the draft genome sequence, the DNA G + C content of the strain was 67.1 mol%, and the values of average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) of strain YIM 132242T with Paracoccus aerius KCTC 42845T were 85.4% and 29.1%, respectively. On the basis of the data from this polyphasic characterization, strain YIM 132242T represents a novel species of the genus Paracoccus, for which the name Paracoccus lichenicola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM 132242T (= KCTC 72463T = CGMCC1.17191T).

Aureimonas leprariae sp. nov., Isolated from a Lepraria sp. Lichen.

A Gram-negative, motile, aerobic and coccoid rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain YIM132180T, was isolated from a Lepraria sp. lichen collected from Pu'er, Yunnan Province, China. The strain grew at 15-35 °C (optimum, 25-28 °C), at 0-2% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0-1%) and at pH 6.0-9.0 (optimum, pH 7.0). The 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that strain YIM132180T had highest similarity (96.4%) with Aureimonas endophytica 2T4P-2-4T, followed by Aureimonas ureilytica NBRC 106430T (95.7%) and Aureimonas rubiginis CC-CFT034T (95.6%). Phylogenetic analysis showed that the strain grouped with species of the genus Aureimonas. The genomic sequence was 4,779,519 bp and contained 4584 coding sequences (CDSs), 54 RNA genes, 3 complete rRNA genes and 47 tRNA genes. The major fatty acids (>10%) of strain YIM132180T were C18:1ω7c, C-16:0 and C19:0 cyclo ω8c. The predominant menaquinone was ubiquinone 10 (Q-10). The polar lipid profile comprised diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylmethylethanolamine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, unidentified phospholipid, amino lipid, lipid and most importantly sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol (SQDG). Based on the draft genome sequence, the G +C content of strain YIM132180T was 68.4 mol%. The results of the polyphasic taxonomic study, including phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, and phylogenetic analyses, showed that strain YIM132180T represents a novel species of the genus Aureimonas, for which the name Aureimonas leprariae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM 132180T (=KCTC 72462T = CGMCC 1.17389T).

RETRACTED: Elevated microRNA-125b promotes inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis by activation of NF-κB pathway.

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal). This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief. Concerns were raised about the similarities between the background of the Western Blots from Figures 4B and 4D. Also, given the comments of Dr Elisabeth Bik regarding this article "... the Western blot bands in all 400+ papers are all very regularly spaced and have a smooth appearance in the shape of a dumbbell or tadpole, without any of the usual smudges or stains. All bands are placed on similar looking backgrounds, suggesting they were copy/pasted from other sources, or computer generated", the journal requested the authors to provide the raw data. However, the authors were not able to fulfil this request and therefore the Editor-in-Chief decided to retract the article.