Abstract
A Gram-positive, coccoid, non-spore-forming bacterium, designated strain 3-6T, was isolated from farmland soil and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic analysis. Comparative analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that the strain represented a novel member of the suborder Micrococcineae. Its nearest phylogenetic neighbour was the type strain of Georgenia muralis (94.2 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity). Chemotaxonomic characteristics of strain 3-6T were as follows: the major menaquinone was MK-8(H4); the polar lipids consisted mainly of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and one unknown glycolipid; the predominant fatty acids were anteiso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C17 : 0 and iso-C16 : 0; mycolic acids were absent. A new murein type, L-lysglyL-gluL-Glu (A4α), was found in the peptidoglycan of the cell wall. The DNA G+C content was 69.8 mol%. On the basis of morphological, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic characteristics, it is suggested that strain 3-6T represents a novel species of a new genus within the suborder Micrococcineae, for which the name Ruania albidiflava gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Ruania albidiflava is 3-6T (=CGMCC 4.3142T=DSM 18029T=JCM 13910T=PCM 2644T).