sp. nov., an actinobacterium isolated from sand of the Taklamakan desert, and emended description of the genus .

A novel actinobacterium, designated strain 16Sb5-5, was isolated from a sand sample collected in the Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. The strain was examined by a polyphasic approach to clarify its taxonomic position. Cells of the isolate were Gram-staining-positive, aerobic, non-motile and short-rod shaped. Strain 16Sb5-5 grew optimally at 37 °C, pH 7.0 and with 0‒2 % (w/v) NaCl. The cell-wall peptidoglycan was of the A3 type and contained alanine, glycine, glutamic acid and ll-diaminopimelic acid (ll-DAP). Ribose, arabinose and glucose were detected in the whole-cell hydrolysates. The predominant menaquinone was MK-9(H). The polar lipid profile consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, an unidentified phospholipid, three unidentified glycolipids and three unidentified lipids. The major whole-cell fatty acids were anteiso-C and iso-C. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain 16Sb5-5 was closely related to CPCC 204711 (99.8 % similarity) and formed a robust clade with in the phylogenetic trees. genomic comparisons showed that strain 16Sb5-5 exhibited ANI values of 94.8-94.9 % and GGDC value of 59.5 % to CPCC 204711. The genomic G+C content was 73.3 mol%. On the basis of phylogenetic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic analyses, strain 16Sb5-5 could be distinguishable from its closest phylogenetic relative and represents a novel species of the genus , for which the name sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 16Sb5-5 (=KCTC 49116=CGMCC 1.16553). The description of the genus has also been emended.