Luteimicrobium album sp nov., a novel actinobacterium isolated from a lichen collected in Japan, and emended description of the genus Luteimicrobium

A novel Gram-stain-positive actinobacterium, designated RI148-Li105(T), was isolated from a lichen sample from Rishiri Island, Japan, and its taxonomic position was investigated by a polyphasic approach. 16S rRNA gene sequencing study indicated that strain RI148-Li105(T) was related to the type strain of Luteimicrobium subarcticum, with a similarity of 97.8%. Cells of strain RI148-Li105(T) exhibited a rod-coccus cycle. The diagnostic cell-wall diamino acid of this organism was lysine and the peptidoglycan type was found to be A4 alpha. The predominant menaquinones were MK-8(H-2) and MK-9(H-2), and the major fatty acids were iso-C-16:0, C-17:1 omega 9c and C-17:0. The DNA G + C content was 73.6 mol%. The major phenotypic characteristics of strain RI148-Li105(T) basically corresponded to those of the genus Luteimicrobium excluding the fatty acid composition. These results suggest that strain RI148-Li105(T) should be affiliated with the genus Luteimicrobium. Meanwhile, DNA-DNA hybridization and some phenotypic characteristics revealed that the strain differs from L. subarcticum. Therefore, strain RI148-Li105(T) represents a novel species of the genus Luteimicrobium, for which the name Luteimicrobium album sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Luteimicrobium album is RI148-Li105(T) (=NBRC 106348(T)= DSM 24866(T)). The Journal of Antibiotics (2012) 65, 427-431; doi:10.1038/ja.2012.45; published online 6 June 2012