Nocardia coffeae sp. nov., an endophytic actinobacterium isolated from the root of Coffea arabica (L.)

The polyphasic taxonomic study of a novel endophytic actinobacterium strain (CA2R105(T)) was carried out. The strain formed fragmented substrate mycelium and showed chemotaxonomic properties typical of members of the genus Nocardia, i.e. the presence of mycolic acid and MK-8 (H4 omega-cycl) in its cells. Strain CA2R105(T) exhibited the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Nocardia jiangxiensis NBRC 101359(T) (99.2%). The genome-based taxonomic analysis revealed low average nucleotide identity-BLAST and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values (<93.7, and <65.2%, respectively) to its closest relative. Moreover, many different phenotypic characteristics were observed between strain CA2R105(T) and all related Nocardia-type strains. This taxonomic evidence suggested that strain CA2R105(T) should be judged as representing a novel species of the genus Nocardia and the name, Nocardia coffeae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CA2R105(T) (=TBRC 11247(T)=NBRC 114292(T)).