Phycicoccus badiiscoriae sp. nov., a novel actinomycete isolated from scoria

An actinomycete strain, designated Sco-B23(T), was isolated from a brown-coloured layer of scoria collected near Darangshi Oreum (a small mountain) in Jeju, Republic of Korea. Cells of the organism were Gram-positive, non-endospore-forming, non-motile cocci and grew at 20-35 °C, at pH 5.1-11.1 and with 0-1 % (w/v) NaCl. Colonies were circular, translucent and moderate yellow in colour with entire margins. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, the isolate belonged to the genus Phycicoccus and formed a monophyletic line between a Phycicoccus bigeumensis-Phycicoccus dokdonensis cluster and a Phycicoccus aerophilus-Phycicoccus ginsenosidimutans cluster. Levels of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity between strain Sco-B23(T) and the type strains of Phycicoccus species were: P. bigeumensis (98.8 %), P. dokdonensis (98.7 %), P. aerophilus (97.7 %), P. ginsenosidimutans (97.7 %), P. cremeus (96.9 %) and P. jejuensis (96.5 %). Chemotaxonomic analyses showed that the isolate possessed meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diamino acid of the peptidoglycan, MK-8(H4) as the predominant menaquinone, a polar lipid profile including diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylinositol mannoside, an unknown phospholipid and two unknown lipids, predominant fatty acids represented by iso-C15 : 0, C17 : 1cis9, iso-C16 : 0 and iso-C14 : 0, and DNA G+C content of 69.7 mol%. DNA-DNA relatedness between strain Sco-B23(T) and the close relatives within the genus Phycicoccus was below 18.1 %. On the basis of phenotypic features and DNA-DNA hybridization data, strain Sco-B23(T) represents a novel species of the genus Phycicoccus, for which the name Phycicoccus badiiscoriae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Sco-B23(T) ( = KCTC 19807(T)  = KACC 15111(T)  = NBRC 107918(T)).