Deinococcus enclensis sp. nov., isolated from a marine sediment sample

A novel pale-pink coloured strain, designated NIO-1023T, was isolated from a marine sediment sample from Chorao Island, Goa, India. The taxonomic position of strain NIO-1023T was investigated by using a polyphasic approach. The cells were observed to be Gram-stain positive, coccal shaped and non-spore forming. Phylogenetic analyses using the 16S rRNA gene sequence of the isolate indicated that the organism belongs to the genus Deinococcus. The strain NIO-1023T showed highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities with Deinococcus ficus (97.8 %), whereas other Deinococcus species showed less than 95 % sequence similarity. The DNA–DNA relatedness with respect to D. ficus CC-FR2-10T was 23.9 %. Chemotaxonomic data revealed that strain NIO-1023T contains only menaquinone MK-8 as the respiratory quinone and a complex polar lipid profile consisting of different unidentified glycolipids and polar lipids, two unknown phospholipids and three unknown phosphoglycolipids. As in other deinococci, one of these phosphoglycolipids was predominant in the profile. The predominant fatty acids were identified as C17:1 w8c, C16:1 w6c/w7c, C15:1 w6c and C17:1 w9c. The genomic DNA G + C content of strain NIO-1023T was determined to be 67.2 mol%. The biochemical and chemotaxonomic properties demonstrate that strain NIO-1023T represents a novel species, for which the name Deinococcus enclensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NIO-1023T (=DSM 25127T = NCIM 5456T).