Nocardia camponoti sp nov., an actinomycete isolated from the head of an ant (Camponotus japonicas Mayr)

A novel actinomycete, designated strain 1H-HV4(T), was isolated from the head of Camponotus japonicas Mayr, which was collected from Northeast Agriculture University (Harbin, Heilongjiang, China). Chemotaxonomic properties of this strain were consistent with those of members of the genus Nocardia. The cell wall contained meso-diaminopimelic acid and whole-cell sugars were galactose, glucose and arabinose. The predominant menaquinone was MK-8(H-4,H- omega-cycl). The phospholipid profile consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylinositol mannoside. The major fatty acids were identified as C-18 : 0 10-methyl, C-16 : 0, C-18 : 1 omega 9c and C-16 : 1 omega 7c. Mycolic acids were found to be present. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis also showed that strain 1H-HV4(T) was a member of the genus Nocardia, with the highest sequence similarities to Nocardia salmonicida JCM 4826(T) (97.39 %), Nocardia soli JCM 11441(T) (97.12 %) and Nocardia cummidelens JCM 11439(T) (97.08 %). 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities to type strains of other members of the genus Nocardia were less than 97 %. However, DNA-DNA relatedness values and phenotypic data demonstrated that strain 1H-HV4(T) was clearly distinguished from all closely related species of the genus Nocardia. It is concluded that the isolate can be classified as representing a novel species of the genus Nocardia, for which the name Nocardia camponoti is proposed. The type strain is 1H-HV4(T) (=DSM 100526(T) =CGMCC 4.7278(T)).