Kribbella shirazensis sp. nov., isolated from Iranian soil.

The taxonomic position of a strain isolated from soil in Shiraz, Fars province, Iran, was investigated. Strain UTMC 693(T) produced an extensively branched substrate mycelium and aerial hyphae consisting of hyphae that fragment into short to elongated rod-like elements. The chemotaxonomic characteristics of the isolate matched those described for the genus Kribbella. Strain UTMC 693(T) showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Kribbella karoonensis DSM 17344(T) (98.3%), K. swartbergensis DSM 17345(T) (98.2%), K. hippodromi S1.4(T) (98.0%), K. aluminosa HKI 0478(T) (98.0%) and K. jejuensis HD9(T) (98.0%). DNA-DNA hybridization studies with closely related type strains showed 56.3% relatedness to K. karoonensis, 21.3% to K. swartbergensis, 39.0% to K. jejuensis and 42.0% to K. aluminosa. Thus, strain UTMC 693(T) can be considered to represent a novel Kribbella species. Strain UTMC 693(T) showed the typical morphology found among members of Kribbella, but can be differentiated easily from closely related species by genotypic characteristics, chemotaxonomic results and other phenotypic markers. Based on these results, strain UTMC 693(T) ( =DSM 45490(T) =CCUG 61792(T)) is considered the type strain of a novel species of the genus Kribbella, for which the name Kribbella shirazensis sp. nov. is proposed.