Deinococcus persicinus sp. Nov., a radiationresistant bacterium from soil

Two Gram-stain-negative, oxidase-negative, catalase-positive, aerobic and coccus-shaped bacterial strains, KSY3-6^T and JSH6-18, were isolated from soil in South Korea. Strains KSY3-6^T and JSH6-18 showed high resistance to gamma-ray and UVC irradiation. The 16S rRNA gene sequences of strains KSY3-6^T and JSH6-18 showed a novel subline within the genus Deinococcus in the family Deinococcaceae. They shared 94.8–86.4% nucleotide similarities with other species of the genus Deinococcus. Strain KSY3-6^T exhibited high DNA–DNA hybridization values with JSH6-18 (77±0.8%). The two strains showed typical chemotaxonomic characteristics of the genus Deinococcus, including the presence of menaquinone 8 (MK-8) as predominant respiratory quinone and C_{16: 0}, C_{17: 0}cyclo and summed feature 3 (C_{16: 1}ω7c/C_{16: 1} ω6c) as major fatty acids. The G+C content of the DNA of strains KSY3-6^T and JSH6-18 was 62.0 and 62.4 mol%, respectively. Polar lipids in strains KSY3-6^T and JSH6-18 were mainly phosphoglycolipids. Based on their phenotypic and genotypic properties, strains KSY3-6^T and JSH6-18 should be classified as representatives of a novel species in the genus Deinococcus, for which the name Deinococcus persicinus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is KSY3-6^T (=KCTC 33787^T=JCM 31313^T). The reference strain is JSH6-18 (=KCTC 33788=JCM 31312).