Rhodococcus coprophilus sp. nov.: An Aerobic Nocardioform Actinomycete Belonging to the ‘rhodochrous’ Complex

SUMMARY: The aerobic nocardioform actinomycete, found to be common in herbivore dung and aquatic habitats and previously given the trivial name Lspi, was studied along with representative strains of taxa within the ‘rhodochrous’ complex. Lspi strains were recovered as a homogeneous cluster which separated from the other reference strains at the 69% similarity level in a numerical taxonomic analysis. The specific name Rhodococcus coprophilus is proposed for this new species. We also consider the generic name Rhodococcus Zopf to be appropriate for most of the species currently accommodated within that rather ill-defined taxon known as the ‘rhodochrous’ complex and variously classified within the genera Nocardia, Mycobacterium, Jensenia, Corynebacterium or Gordona.