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 degrees 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 612J/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)7c (31.4%), C-16:0 (18.4%), and C(17:1)8c (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 69.2mol%. 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)).