Agromyces italicus sp. nov., Agromyces humatus sp. nov. and Agromyces lapidis sp. nov., isolated from Roman catacombs

1 Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiologia, CSIC, Apartado 1052, E-41080 Sevilla, Spain 2 Hans-Knöll-Institute for Natural Products Research, Member of the Leibniz Association, D-07745 Jena, Germany Correspondence Cesareo Saiz-Jimenez saiz{at}irnase.csic.es A polyphasic study was carried out to clarify the taxonomic positions of three Gram-positive isolates from the Catacombs of Domitilla, Rome (Italy). 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons placed these strains within the genus Agromyces . The morphological and chemotaxonomic characteristics of these isolates were consistent with the description of the genus Agromyces . The three isolates could be readily distinguished from one another and from representatives of all Agromyces species with validly published names by a broad range of phenotypic characteristics and DNA–DNA relatedness studies. Therefore, these isolates are proposed to represent three novel species of the genus Agromyces , Agromyces italicus sp. nov. (type strain CD1 T =HKI 0325 T =DSM 16388 T =NCIMB 14011 T ), Agromyces humatus sp. nov. (type strain CD5 T =HKI 0327 T =DSM 16389 T =NCIMB 14012 T ) and Agromyces lapidis sp. nov. (type strain CD55 T =HKI 0324 T =DSM 16390 T =NCIMB 14013 T ). Published online ahead of print on 5 November 2004 as DOI 10.1099/ijs.0.63414-0. The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the 16S rRNA gene sequences of strains CD1 T , CD5 T and CD55 T are AY618215 , AY618216 and AY618217 , respectively.