Saccharomonospora halophila sp nov., a novel halophilic actinomycete isolated from marsh soil in Kuwait

An actinomycete, strain 8(T), was isolated from marsh soil in Kuwait. The strain Braunschweig, Germany was aerobic, Gram-positive, halophilic and produced light blue to greyish aerial mycelium. The warty spores were sessile, occurring singly or in pairs on aerial mycelium. The mycelium was stable and did not fragment during ageing. Chemotaxonomic markers of the isolate were consistent with its classification as Saccharomonospora. The strain possessed meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic amino acid in the peptidoglycan. The diagnostic sugars were arabinose and galactose; polar lipids were phosphatidyl inositol, phosphatidyl ethanolamine, hydroxy-phosphatidyl ethanolamine, lyso-phosphatidyl ethanolamine and diphosphatidyl glycerol; the principal menaquinone was MK-9(H-4); and the iso/anteiso-branched fatty acid pattern was combined with 10-methyl-branched and 2-hydroxy-branched fatty acids. saccharomonospora cyanea DSM 44106(T) was the closest phylogenetic neighbour of strain 8(T), showing 96.8% 16S rDNA sequence similarity. These data, together with distinct physiological traits, led to the conclusion that the novel isolate represents a new species within the genus Saccharomonospora for which the name Saccharomonospora halophila sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is strain 8(T) (= DSM 44411(T)= NRRL B-24125(T)).