Longispora albida gen. nov., sp nov., a novel genus of the family Micromonosporaceae

A novel actinomycete strain was isolated from a soil sample collected in Japan by using gellan gum as a solidifying agent. Spore-chains from the short sporophores were straight and each had more than 20 spores per chain. Spores possessed no motility. Cell-wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid, glycine, alanine and glutamic acid; whole-cell hydrolysates contained arabinose, galactose and xylose. The acyl type of the peptidoglycan was glycolyl. The predominant menaquinones were MK-10(H-4) and MK-10(H-6); MK-10(H-8) was a minor component. Mycolic acids were not detected. The diagostic phospholipid was phosphatidylethanolamine. Cellular fatty acids included heptadecenoic (C-17:1), 14-methylpentadecanoic (i-C-16:0) and octaclecenoic (C-18:1) acids, The G + C content of the DNA was 70 mol%. On the basis of morphogical and chemotaxonomic properties and phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rDNA sequence data, it is proposed that this strain should be classified in a novel genus and species, Longispora albida gen. nov., sp. nov., in the family Micromonosporaceae. The type strain is K97-0003(T) (= NRRL B-24201(T) = JCM 11711(T)).