POLYPHASIC EVIDENCE FOR THE TRANSFER OF RHODOCOCCUS-ROSEUS TO RHODOCOCCUS-RHODOCHROUS

Investigation of fatty acid and mycolic acid properties of certain members of the genera Nocardia and Rhodococcus indicated identical spectra for certain pairs of organisms. Binary 16S rDNA sequence homology for the pairs Rhodococcus rhodochrous and R. roseus, Nocardia calcarea and R. erythropolis, and N. reshicta and R. equi ranged between 99.2 and 99.9% for each of these pairs of species, Corresponding DNA-DNA similarity values, obtained by the spectrophotometric method, were significantly higher than 70%, Because certain chemotaxonomic properties and the majority of published phenotypic characters support the high degree of relatedness, we propose to transfer R, roseus to R. rhodochrous. The transfer of N. calcarea to R. erythropolis, and the transfer of Nocardia restricta to Rhodococcus equi (M. Goodfellow, p. 1472-1481, in P. H. A. Sneath et al., ed., Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, vol, 2, 1986) is confirmed.