Arthrobacter cupressi sp nov., an actinomycete isolated from the rhizosphere soil of Cupressus sempervirens

An actinobacterial strain, designated D48(T), was isolated from the rhizosphere soil of a cypress tree collected from Mianyang in Sichuan province, China. The strain was Gram-stain-positive, catalase-positive, oxidase-negative and non-motile, with lysine as the peptidoglycan diagnostic diamino acid and acetyl as the peptidoglycan acyl type. The predominant menaquinone was MK-9(H-2); small amounts of MK-7(H-2), MK-10(H-2) and MK-6 were also present. The major fatty acids were anteiso-C-15:0, anteiso-C-17:0 and iso-C-16:0. The isolate underwent a rod-coccus morphological cycle, had a high DNA G + C content, was aerobic and grew between 12 and 37 degrees C (optimum, 28 degrees C). On the basis of the phenotypic and chemotaxonomic analyses, 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons and DNA-DNA hybridization data, the isolate represents a novel species of the genus Arthrobacter, for which the name Arthrobacter cupressi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is D48(T) (=DSM 24664(T)=CGMCC 1.10783(T)).