Kribbella hippodromi sp nov., isolated from soil from a racecourse in South Africa

A novel actinomycete, designated strain S1.4(T), was isolated from a soil sample collected from Kenilworth Racecourse in the Western Cape, South Africa. The strain was able to grow in the presence of 5% NaCl. It contained LL-diaminopimelic acid and glycine in the cell-wall pepticloglycan with glucose present in the whole-cell sugar profile. Strain S1.4(T) was shown to be a member of either the genus Kribbella or the genus Nocardioides based on a rapid molecular identification method by using single-enzyme restriction enclonuclease digestion of the PCR-amplified 16S rRNA gene with Mbol, Vspl, Sphl, SnaBl, SaA and Agel. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain S1.4(T) belonged to the genus Kribbella. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons showed that strain S1.4(T) was related most closely to Kribbella solani DSA1(T). Strain S1.4(T) was phenotypically distinct from K solani DSA1(T) and was shown to be a separate genomic species based on DNA-DNA hybridization experiments (40.4 +/- 3.8% DNA-DNA relatedness between the two). Strain S1.4(T) (=DSM 19227(T) =NRRL B-24553(T)) is thus presented as the type strain of a novel species, for which the name Kribbefla hippodromi sp. nov. is proposed.