Deinococcus terrigena sp. nov., a novel member of the family Deinococcaceae

A bacterial strain, S13-1-2-1 ^T , was isolated from a soil sample collected in Gyeongsangnam-do province, South Korea. Cells were observed to be Gram-stain negative, short rod-shaped and colonies to be pale pink in colour. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences identified this strain as a member of the genus Deinococcus in the family Deinococcaceae, with high levels of sequence similarity with Deinococcus ficus CC-FR2-10 ^T (97.9%) and Deinococcus enclensis NIO-1023 ^T (95.4%). Growth of strain S13-1-2-1 ^T was observed at 10–42 °C, pH 6–8, and in the presence of 0–1.0% NaCl. The isolate was found to exhibit resistance to gamma radiation (D ₁₀ 10.1 KGy) and UV-light (D ₁₀ 612 J/m ² ). The major peptidoglycan amino acids were identified as d-glutamic acid, glycine, alanine and l-ornithine. The predominant respiratory quinone of the strain was identified as menaquinone-8, the major fatty acids were found to be C _16:1 ω7c (31.4%), C _16:0 (18.4%), and C _17:1 ω8c (17.4%) and the major polar lipids were observed to be an unidentified phosphoglycolipid and an unidentified glycolipid. The genomic DNA G + C content of the strain was determined to be 69.2 mol%. DNA–DNA hybridization with D. ficus showed a relatedness value of 31.5 ± 4.2%. The DNA–DNA hybridization result and the differentiating phenotypic properties clearly indicate that strain S13-1-2-1 ^T represents a novel species in the genus Deinococcus, for which the name Deinococcus terrigena sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is S13-1-2-1 ^T (= KCTC 33939 ^T = JCM 32248 ^T ).