Kitasatospora acidiphila sp. nov., isolated from pine grove soil, exhibiting antimicrobial potential

A polyphasic study was carried out to establish the taxonomic position of an acidophilic isolate designated MMS16-CNU292(T) (=JCM 32302(T)) from pine grove soil, and provisionally assigned to the genus Kitasatospora. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, the strain formed a novel evolutionary lineage within Kitasatospora and showed highest similarities to Kitasatospora azatica KCTC 9699(T) (98.75 %), Kitasatospora kifunensis IFO 15206(T) (98.74 %), Kitasatospora purpeofusca NRRL B-1817(T) (98.61 %) and Kitasatospora nipponensis HKI 0315(T) (98.42 %), respectively. Strain MMS16-CNU292(T) possessed MK-9(H 6) and MK-9(H-8) as the major menaquinones, and a major amount of meso-diaminopimelic acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan. The whole-cell hydrolysates were rich in galactose, glucose and mannose, and the polar lipids mainly consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylinositol mannosides. The major fatty acids were anteiso-C-15:1-A, anteiso-C-15:0, and iso-C-15:0, and the DNA G+C content was 71.5 mol%. The strain exhibited antibacterial activity against a number of bacterial strains, and the activity was generally greater when grown in acidic conditions. The phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and phenotypic properties enabled distinction of MMS16-CNU292(T) from related species, and thus the isolate should be recognized as a new species of the genus Kitasatospora, for which the name Kitasatospora acidiphila sp. nov. (type strain=MMS16-CNU292(T)=KCTC 49011(T)=JCM 32302(T)) is proposed.