Terrabacter terrae sp. nov., a novel actinomycete isolated from soil in Spain

1 Departamento de Microbiología y Genética, Universidad de Salamanca, Spain 2 Departamento de Química-Física, Universidad de Salamanca, Spain Correspondence Marta Montero-Barrientos afta{at}usal.es A Gram-positive, aerobic, long-rod-shaped, non-spore-forming bacterium (strain PPLB T ) was isolated from soil mixed with Iberian pig hair. This actinomycete showed keratinase activity in vitro when chicken feathers were added to the culture medium. Strain PPLB T was oxidase-negative and catalase-positive and produced lipase and esterase lipase. This actinomycete grew at 40 °C on nutrient agar and in the same medium containing 5 % (w/v) NaCl. Growth was observed with many different carbohydrates as the sole carbon source. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, strain PPLB T was shown to belong to the genus Terrabacter of the family Intrasporangiaceae . Strain PPLB T showed 98·8 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Terrabacter tumescens . Chemotaxonomic data, such as the main ubiquinone (MK-8), the main polar lipids (phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylinositol) and the main fatty acids (i-C 15 : 0 , ai-C 15 : 0 , i-C 16 : 0 and ai-C 17 : 0 ) supported the affiliation of strain PPLB T to the genus Terrabacter . The G+C content of the DNA was 71 mol%. The results of DNA–DNA hybridization (36·6 % relatedness between Terrabacter tumescens and strain PPLB T ) and physiological and biochemical tests suggested that strain PPLB T belongs to a novel species of the genus Terrabacter , for which the name Terrabacter terrae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is PPLB T (=CECT 3379 T =LMG 22921 T ). Published online ahead of print on 22 July 2005 as DOI 10.1099/ijs.0.63768-0. The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain PPLB T is AY944176 .