Phycicoccus dokdonensis sp. nov., isolated from soil

A Gram-positive, non-motile, coccoid-shaped bacterium, designated strain DS-8(T), was isolated from soil from Dokdo, Korea, and its taxonomic position was investigated by using a polyphasic study. Strain DS-8(T) grew optimally at 30 degrees C and pH 6.5-7.5 in the presence of 0.5-1.0 % (w/v) NaCl. A neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain DS-8(T) joined the type strain of Phycicoccus jejuensis, with a bootstrap resampling value of 92.5 %, and shared 96.5 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with P. jejuensis. The cell-wall peptidoglycan type was based on meso-diaminopimelic acid and the acyl type of the muramic acid was acetyl. The predominant menaquinone was MK-8(H(4)). The major fatty acids were iso-C(15 : 0) and iso-C(16 : 0). Major polar lipids detected in strain DS-8(T) were phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol and two unidentified phospholipids. The DNA G+C content was 70.7 mol%. DNA-DNA relatedness data and differential phenotypic properties, together with the phylogenetic distinctiveness, revealed that strain DS-8(T) differs from P. jejuensis. On the basis of the data obtained, strain DS-8(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Phycicoccus, for which the name Phycicoccus dokdonensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is DS-8(T) (=KCTC 19248(T)=CCUG 54521(T)).