Streptomyces odonnellii sp. nov., a proteolytic streptomycete isolated from soil under cerrado (savanna) vegetation cover.

A novel streptomycete, strain 594T, isolated from Brazilian soil collected under cerrado (savanna) vegetation cover is described. Strain 594T produced thermophilic chitinolytic proteases in assays containing feather meal and corn steep liquor as sole sources of carbon and nitrogen. The strain produced white to grey aerial mycelium and spiral chains of spiny-surfaced spores on the aerial mycelium and did not produce diffusible pigments. The ll-isomer of diaminopimelic acid was present in the cell wall and menaquinones were predominantly MK-9(H6) (52 %) and MK-9(H8) (30 %) with 6 % MK-9(H4) and slightly less than 1 % MK-9(H2). Polar lipids present were phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol and an unknown phospholipid. The major fatty acids were anteiso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C16 : 0, anteiso-C14 : 0 and anteiso-C17 : 0. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 70.4 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis of the nearly complete 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that it differed from described Streptomyces species. Multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) using five housekeeping genes (atpD, gyrB, rpoB, recA and trpB) comparing Streptomyces type strains showed that the MLSA distance of strain 594T to the most closely related species was greater than the 0.007 threshold. The in silico DNA-DNA relatedness between the genome sequence of strain 594T and that of the phylogenetically nearest species was well below the species level recommendation. There was thus multiple evidence justifying the description of this strain as representing a novel species, for which the name Streptomyces odonnellii sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 594T (=IMPPG 594T=DSM 41949T=NRRL B-24891T).

Nocardia donostiensis sp. nov., isolated from human respiratory specimens.

Three human clinical isolates (X1654, X1655, and W9944) were recovered from the sputum and bronchial washings of two patients with pulmonary infections. The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis of the isolates showed that they share 100 % sequence similarity with each other and belong to the genus Nocardia. Close phylogenetic neighbours are Nocardia brevicatena ATCC 15333(T) (98.6 %) and Nocardia paucivorans ATCC BAA-278T (98.4 %). The in silico DNA-DNA relatedness between the isolates ranges from 96.8 to 100 % suggesting that they belong to the same genomic species. The DNA-DNA relatedness between X1654 and N. brevicatena ATCC 15333(T) is 13.3 ± 2.3 % and N. paucivorans ATCC BAA-278T is 18.95 ± 1.1 % suggesting that they do not belong to the same genomic species. Believed to represent a novel species, these isolates were further characterised to establish their taxonomic standing within the genus. Chemotaxonomic data for isolate X1654 are consistent with those described for the genus Nocardia: this isolate produced saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, tuberculostearic acid (15.9 %), the major menaquinone was MK-8 (H4cyclic), mycolic acid chain lengths ranged from 38 to 58 carbons, produced meso-diaminopimelic acid with arabinose, glucose, and galactose as the whole cell sugars. The polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, and phosphatidylinositol mannosides. The DNA G+C content is 66.7 mol  %. Based on the combination of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, and genotypic data for X1654, X1655, and W9944, we conclude that these isolates represent a novel species within the genus Nocardia for which we propose the name Nocardia donostiensis sp. nov. with X1654(T) (=DSM 46814(T) = CECT 8839(T)) as the type strain.