Phycicoccus soli sp nov., isolated from soil

A Gram-stain-positive, non-motile, coccus-shaped bacterium, strain THG-a14T, was isolated. from soil of Gyeyang mountain in Incheon, Republic of Korea. The isolate grew optimally at 28 degrees C, at pH 6.5-7.5 and with 0-3% (w/v) NaCl. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons, strain THG-a14(T) was closely related to Phycicoccus aerophilus 5516T-20(T) (97.7 %), P. ginsenosidimutans BXN5-13(T) (97.6 %), 'P. ochangensis' L1b-b9 (97.4 %) and P. bigeumensis MSL-03 (97.2%). The DNA G + C content of strain THG-a14(T) was 71.6 mol%. In DNA-DNA hybridization, the DNA-DNA relatedness between strain THG-a14(T) and its closest phylogenetically neighbours was below 50.0%. Strain THG-a14(T) was characterized chemotaxonomically as having meso-diaminopimelic acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan. Strain THG-a14(T) contained glucose and ribose as whole-cell-wall sugars and menaquinone MK-8(H-4) as the major isoprenoid quinone. Polar lipids in strain THG-a14(T) consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, phosphoaminoglycolipids, unidentified phospholipids and unidentified lipids. The major fatty acids were iso-C-16:0, iso-C-15:0 and C-17:1 omega 8c. On the basis of our polyphasic taxonomy study, strain THG-a14(T) represents a novel species within the genus Phycicoccus, for which the name Phycicoccus soli sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is THG-a14(T) (=KACC 17892(T)=JCM 19837(T)).