Nocardioides terrae sp. nov., isolated from forest soil

Bacterial strain VA15^T was isolated from forest soil of the Changbai Mountains, Heilongjiang Province, China. Cells of strain VA15^T were Gram-positive-staining, 0.2–0.3 µm in diameter and 0.3–1.0 µm long, strictly aerobic, non-motile and rod-shaped or coccoid. Growth occurred at 16–34 °C (optimum, 29 °C), at pH 5.5–8.5 (optimum, pH 6.2–6.5) and in the presence of 0–1 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0–0.25 %). Strain VA15^T contained MK-8(H₄) as the major respiratory quinone and LL-2,6-diaminopimelic acid as the cell-wall diamino acid. The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C_{16 : 0} (18.1 % of the total), 10-methyl C_{18 : 0} (11.8 %) and 10-methyl C_{17 : 0} (10.7 %). The DNA G+C content of strain VA15^T was 71.6 mol% (T_m). 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that strain VA15^T was phylogenetically related to members of the genus Nocardioides; levels of similarity to the type strains of recognized Nocardioides species ranged from 92.9 to 97.7 %. Levels of DNA–DNA relatedness between strain VA15^T and its closest phylogenetic relatives, Nocardioides panacihumi DSM 18660^T and Nocardioides marinus DSM 18248^T, were 21 and 16 %, respectively. Based on these results, it is concluded that strain VA15^T represents a novel species of the genus Nocardioides, for which the name Nocardioides terrae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is VA15^T (=CGMCC 1.7056^T =NBRC 104259^T).