Deinococcus ficus sp. nov., isolated from the rhizosphere of Ficus religiosa L

1 College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, National Chung Hsing University, 250 Kuo Kuang Road, Taichung 402, Taiwan, Republic of China 2 Institut für Angewandte Mikrobiologie, Universität Giessen, Giessen, Germany 3 Institut für Bakteriologie, Mykologie und Hygiene, Veterinärmedizinische Universität, Wien, Austria Correspondence Chiu-Chung Young ccyoung{at}mail.nchu.edu.tw A pale-pink strain (CC-FR2-10 T ) from the rhizosphere of the sacred tree Ficus religiosa L. in Taiwan was investigated by using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. The cells were Gram-positive, rod-shaped and non-spore-forming. Phylogenetic analyses using the 16S rRNA gene sequence of the isolate indicated that the organism belongs to the genus Deinococcus , the highest sequence similarities being found with Deinococcus grandis (96·1 %), Deinococcus radiodurans (94·3 %), Deinococcus radiopugnans (93·2 %), Deinococcus indicus (93·0 %), Deinococcus proteolyticus (92·5 %), Deinococcus murrayi (92·4 %) and Deinococcus geothermalis (90·7 %). The DNA–DNA relatedness with respect to D. grandis DSM 3963 T was 17·9 %. Chemotaxonomic data revealed that strain CC-FR2-10 T contains only menaquinone MK-8 as the respiratory quinone, unknown phosphoglycolipids as the predominant polar lipids and 16 : 1 7 c , 17 : 1 8 c and 17 : 1 9 c iso as the predominant fatty acids. The biochemical and chemotaxonomic properties demonstrate that strain CC-FR2-10 T represents a novel species, for which the name Deinococcus ficus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CC-FR2-10 T (=CCUG 53391 T =CIP 108832 T ). Published online ahead of print on 25 November 2005 as DOI 10.1099/ijs.0.64007-0. The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain CC-FR2-10 T is AY941086 . A supplementary table showing the fatty acid profiles of strain CC-FR2-10 T and representative Deinococcus species and a phylogenetic tree constructed using maximum parsimony are available as supplementary material in IJSEM Online.