Spelaeicoccus albus gen. nov., sp nov., an actinobacterium isolated from a natural cave

A novel Gram-stain-positive, non-endospore-forming, coccoid actinobacterium, designated strain D3-40(T), was isolated from the soil of a natural cave and characterized by means of a polyphasic taxonomic analysis. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain D3-40(T) is a member of the suborder Micrococcineae and forms a distinct branch at the base of a Brevibacteriaceae cluster. Its closest relative is the type strain of Brevibacterium samyangense (95.7% sequence similarity). The chemotaxonomic characteristics were as follows: the cell-wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid; the major menaquinone was MK-9(H-2); the polar lipids consisted of phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, an unknown glycolipid and an unknown phospholipid; the major fatty acids were anteiso-C-15:0, anteiso-C-17:0, iso-C-15:0 C-16:0 and cyclohexyl-C-17:0; mycolic acids were absent. The G+C content of the DNA was 64.3 mol%. On the basis of morphological, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data, it is suggested that the organism represents a novel species of a new genus within the family Brevibacteriaceae, for which the name Spelaeicoccus albus gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of the type species is D3-40(T) (=KCTC 29141(T)= DSM 26341(T)).