Kineococcus gynurae sp. nov., isolated from a Thai medicinal plant.

A novel, Gram-positive, motile, coccus-shaped, orange-pigmented organism, designated strain KKD096(T), was isolated from the roots of a Thai medicinal plant, Gynura pseudochina DC. var. hispida Thwaites. Growth of strain KKD096(T) occurred at temperatures of 14-34 degrees C, at pH 5.0-9.0 and at NaCl concentrations up to 7 % (w/v). Whole-cell hydrolysates contained arabinose and galactose as the characteristic sugars. The diagnostic diamino acid of the peptidoglycan was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The glycan moiety of the murein contained acetyl residues. The predominant menaquinone was MK-9(H2); mycolic acids were not detected. The genomic DNA G+C content was 73.3 mol%. The major cellular fatty acid was anteiso-C(15 : 0) (81.42 % of the total). Strain KKD096(T) was assigned to the genus Kineococcus on the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis; it was most closely related to Kineococcus radiotolerans DSM 14245(T) (97.1 % similarity). DNA-DNA hybridization revealed 39.4 % relatedness between these two taxa. On the basis of the genotypic and phenotypic data presented, strain KKD096(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Kineococcus, for which the name Kineococcus gynurae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is KKD096(T) (=TISTR 1856(T)=NRRL B-24568(T)=BCC 26245(T)=NBRC 103943(T)).