Blastococcus saxobsidens sp. nov., and emended descriptions of the genus Blastococcus Ahrens and Moll 1970 and Blastococcus aggregatus Ahrens and Moll 1970

1 Department of Microbiological, Genetic and Molecular Sciences, University of Messina, Salita Sperone 31, I-98166 Messina, Italy 2 DSMZ – German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH, Mascheroder Weg 1b, D-38124 Braunschweig, Germany 3 GBF – Gesellschaft für Biotechnologische Forschung mbH, Mascheroder Weg 1b, D-38124 Braunschweig, Germany Correspondence Erko Stackebrandt erko{at}dsmz.de Ten Gram-positive, aerobic bacterial strains with coccoid cells occurring singly, in pairs, tetrads and small aggregates were isolated from the surface of marble and calcareous stones. The peptidoglycan contained meso -diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. The major menaquinone was MK-9(H 4 ). The cellular fatty acid pattern consisted mainly of iso-branched chain components. According to their phylogenetic position, the organisms are members of the family Geodermatophilaceae , clustering close to Blastococcus aggregatus DSM 4725 T . Based on a combination of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and genotypic characteristics, strain BC444 T and seven relatives group apart from strains BC412 (=DSM 44517) and BC521 (=DSM 44518), which themselves form two individual lineages. DNA–DNA reassociation studies revealed that members of the three lineages were only remotely related to B. aggregatu s DSM 4725 T ; as the strain-rich cluster containing BC444 T shared low DNA similarity values with strains BC412 and BC521, it will be described as a novel species of Blastococcus , for which the name Blastococcus saxobsidens sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is BC444 T (=DSM 44509 T =NRRL 24246 T ). Abbreviations: A 2 pm, diaminopimelic acid Published online ahead of print on 29 August 2003 as DOI 10.1099/ijs.0.02745-0. The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the 16S rRNA gene sequences of strains BC512, BC444 T , BC517, BC521 and BC412 are AJ316570 – AJ316574 . Detailed fatty acid compositions of B. aggregatus DSM 4725 T and nine novel strains are available as supplementary material in IJSEM Online.