Microbacterium aureliae sp nov., a novel actinobacterium isolated from Aurelia aurita, the moon jellyfish

The taxonomic position of a lemon-yellow-pigmented actinobacterium, strain JF-6(T), isolated from Aurelia aurita, the moon jellyfish, collected from the Bay of Bengal coast, Kanyakumari, India, was determined using a polyphasic approach. The strain had phenotypic and chemotaxonomic properties that were consistent with its classification in the genus Microbacterium. Alignment of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain JF-6(T) with sequences from Microbacterium arthrosphaerae CC-VM-Y-T, Microbacterium yannicii G72(T), Microbacterium trichothecenolyticum IFO 15077(T), Microbacterium flavescens DSM 20643(T), Microbacterium insulae DS-66(T), Microbacterium resistens DMMZ 1710(T) and Microbacterium thalassium IFO 16060(T) revealed similarities of 98.95, 98.76, 98.43, 98.41, 98.41, 98.26 and 98.22 %, respectively. However, the levels of DNA-DNA relatedness with its closest phylogenetic neighbours confirmed that it represents a novel species within the genus. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol and an unknown glycolipid. The major menaquinones detected for strain JF-6(T) were MK-13 and MK-12. The diamino acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan was ornithine and the peptidoglycan was type B2b (Glu/Hyg-Gly-D-Orn). The DNA G+C content was 69.4 mol%. Based on these differences, strain JF-6 T (= MTCC 11843(T) = JCM 30060 T = KCTC 39828(T)) should be classified as the type strain of a novel species of Microbacterium, for which the name Microbacterium aureliae sp. nov. is proposed.