Streptomyces chitinivorans sp nov., a chitinolytic strain isolated from estuarine lake sediment

A novel actinobacterial strain RC1832(T) was isolated from the sediment of a fish dumping yard at Balugaon near Chilika Lake. The strain is halotolerant (15% NaCl, w/v), alkali-tolerant (pH 7-10) and hydrolyzes chitin, starch, gelatin, cellulose, carboxymethyl cellulose, Tween 80, tributyrin, lecithin and casein. Apart from showing typical genus-specific morphological and chemotaxonomic features, the comparision and analysis of the near complete 16S rRNA gene sequence clearly revealed that the strain RC1832(T) represented a member of the genus Streptomyces. It exhibited the highest sequence similarities with the strains Streptomyces fenghuangensis GIMN4.003(T) (99.78 %), Streptomyces nanhaiensis DSM 41926(T) (99.07 %), Streptomyces radiopugnans R97(T) (98.71 %), Streptomyces atacamensis DSM 42065(T) (98.65 %) and Streptomyces barkulensis DSM 42082(T) (98.25 %). The DNA-DNA relatedness of strain RC 1832(T) with the closest phylogenetic neighbours S. fenghuangensis GIMN4.003(T) and S. nanhaiensis DSM 41926(T) were 20 +/- 2% and 21 +/- 2 %, respectively. Thus, based on a range of phenotypic and genotypic properties, strain RC1832(T) was suggested to represent a novel species of the genus Streptomyces for which the name Streptomyces chitinivorans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is RC1832(T) (=JCM 30611=KCTC 29696).