Actinoallomurus bryophytorum sp. nov., an endophytic actinomycete isolated from moss ( Bryophyta )

A novel endophytic actinomycete, strain NEAU-TX1-15T, was isolated from moss, collected from Wuchang, Heilongjiang province, north China. A polyphasic taxonomic study was carried out to establish the status of strain NEAU-TX1-15T. Morphological and chemotaxonomic properties of strain NEAU-TX1-15T are consistent with the description of the genus Actinoallomurus. Strain NEAU-TX1-15T was observed to form short spiral or looped spore chains on aerial hyphae. The cell wall peptidoglycan was found to contain lysine and meso-diaminopimelic acid. The major menaquinones were identified as MK-9(H6) and MK-9(H8). The only phospholipid identified was phosphatidylglycerol. The major fatty acid was identified as iso-C16:0. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence supports the assignment of the novel strain to the genus Actinoallomurus, as it exhibits 99.2 % gene sequence similarity to that of Actinoallomurus yoronensis NBRC 103686T. However, the low level of DNA–DNA relatedness allowed the strain to be differentiated from its close relative. Moreover, strain NEAU-TX1-15T could also be differentiated from A. yoronensis NBRC 103686T and other Actinoallomurus species showing high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (>98.0 %) by cultural and physiological characteristics. Therefore, the combination of phenotypic and chemotaxonomic data, and the DNA–DNA hybridization value, indicated that strain NEAU-TX1-15T represents a novel species of the genus Actinoallomurus for which the name Actinoallomurus bryophytorum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NEAU-TX1-15T (=CGMCC 4.7200T = JCM 30340T).