Arthrobacter crusticola sp. nov., Isolated from Biological Soil Crusts in the Mu Us Sandy Land, China

Mu Us Sandy Land in China is a very fragile ecological environment due to serious desertification. While attempting to gain insights into the biodiversity of biological soil crusts of Mu Us Sandy Land, a novel bacterial strain, SLN-3^T, was isolated. It was phylogenetically placed into the genus Arthrobacter within the family Micrococcaceae based on its 16S rRNA gene sequence. The most closely related species were Arthrobacter ruber MDB1-42^T (98.6%) and Arthrobacter agilis DSM 20550^T (98.3%). Cells of the novel species were Gram-stain-positive, aerobic, and non-endospore-forming. The values of average nucleotide identity and the digital DNA-DNA hybridization between SLN-3^T and MDB1-42^T were 84.9% and 21.3%, respectively. The draft genome size of strain SLN-3^T was 3.67 Mb, and its genomic G+C content was 68.1%. The predominant cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C_15:0 and C_17:0 anteiso. Glucose, galactose, and ribose were the whole-cell sugars. The polar lipids consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, glycolipid, and phospholipid. The peptidoglycan contained lysine, glutamic acid, and alanine. The predominant menaquinone was MK-9(H₂). Based on the data from the chemotaxonomic, phylogenetic, and phenotypic evidence, a novel species named Arthrobacter crusticola sp. nov is proposed, whose type strain is SLN-3^T (= ACCC 61595^T = JCM 33723^T).