Menaquinone Composition in the Classification of Actinomadura and Related Taxa

Summary: Menaquinones were the only isoprenoid quinones found in 40 strains representing 19 species of Actinomadura, Microbispora rosea, Microtetraspora glauca, Microtetraspora niveoalba, Nocardiopsis dassonvillei and Streptomyces somaliensis. The Nocardiopsis dassonvillei strains had a characteristic profile consisting of major amounts of di-, tetra-, hexa- and octahydromenaquinones with ten isoprene units and were thereby distinguished from all of the other test strains which contained complex mixtures of hydrogenated menaquinones with nine isoprene units. The latter strains were divided into three groups based upon the predominant isoprenologue detected: (i) Actinomadura citrea, A. coerulea, A. helvata, A. libanotica, A. livida, A. luteofluorescens, A. madurae, A. malachitica, A. verrucosospora and Streptomyces somaliensis contained hexahydrogenated menaquinones with nine isoprene units; (ii) A. pelletieri and A. spadix contained octahydrogenated menaquinones with nine isoprene units and (iii) “A. coeruleoviolacea”, A. ferruginea, A. pusilla, A. roseola, A. roseoviolacea, A. rubra, A. salmonea, A. spiralis, Microbispora rosea, Microtetraspora glauca, and M. niveoalba contained tetrahydrogenated menaquinones with nine isoprene units. The results show that menaquinone profiles are of value both in generic and sub-generic classifications of Actinomadura. They also suggest that some species of Microbispora and Microtetraspora are closely related to Actinomadura, a result in line with other trends in the taxonomy of these organisms.