Streptomyces genisteinicus sp. nov., a novel genistein-producing actinomycete isolated from a Chinese medicinal plant and proposal of Streptomyces michiganensis Corbaz et al. 1957 as a later heterotypic synonym of Streptomyces xanthochromogenes Arishima et al. 1956.

ABSTRACT

A novel genistein-producing actinobacterial strain, designated strain CRPJ-33T, was isolated from the healthy leaves of a medicinal plant Xanthium sibiricum collected from Hunan Province, PR China. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated strain CRPJ-33T belonged to the genus Streptomyces and had 99.7, 99.0, 98.9, 98.9, 98.8 and 98.7% sequence similarities to Streptomyces zhihengii YIM T102T, Streptomyces eurocidicus NRRL B-1676T, Streptomyces xanthochromogenes NRRL B-5410T, Streptomyces michiganensis NBRC 12797T, Streptomyces mauvecolor LMG 20100T and Streptomyces lavendofoliae NBRC 12882T, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain CRPJ-33T was most closely related to S. zhihengii YIM T102T. However, digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) and average nucleotide identity (ANI) values between them were much less than the recommended threshold values. Furthermore, differential comparisons of the phenotypic characteristics were enough to distinguish strain CRPJ-33T from S. zhihengii YIM T102T. Meanwhile, the ANI and dDDH values or MLSA distances between strain CRPJ-33T and other type strains, which exhibited ≥98.7 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities to strain CRPJ-33T, were far away from the recommended threshold values. Based on these results, it is thought that strain CRPJ-33T should represent a novel species of the genus Streptomyces, for which the name Streptomyces genisteinicus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CRPJ-33T (=MCCC 1K04965T=JCM 34526T). In addition, the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and genotypic characteristics, as well as phylogenetic information revealed that the type strains of S. xanthochromogenes and S. michiganensis should belong to same genomic species. Consequently, it is proposed that S. michiganensis is a heterotypic synonym of S. xanthochromogenes for which an emended description is given.