Description of Ornithinimicrobium cryptoxanthini sp. nov., a Novel Actinomycete Producing β-cryptoxanthin Isolated from the Tongtian River Sediments

Two novel Gram-stain-positive, aerobic, non-motile, and yellow-pigmented, irregular rod-shaped bacteria (JY.X269 and JY.X270 T ) were isolated from the near-surface sediments of river in Qinghai Province, P. R. China (32°37′13″N, 96°05′37″E) in July 2019. Both strains were shown to grow at 15–35 °C and pH 7.0–10.0, and in the presence of 0–6.0% (w/v) NaCl. The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that the isolates were closely related to Ornithinimicrobium cavernae CFH 30183 T (98.6–98.8% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), O. ciconiae H23M54 T (98.5–98.6%) and O. murale 01-Gi-040 T (98.3–98.5%). The phylogenetic and phylogenomic trees based on the 16S rRNA gene and 537 core gene sequences, respectively, revealed that the two strains formed a distinct cluster with the above three species. The digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) and average nucleotide identity (ANI) values between our two isolates (JY.X269 and JY.X270 T ) and other Ornithinimicrobium species were within the ranges of 19.0–23.9% and 70.8–80.4%, respectively, all below the respective recommended 70.0% and 95–96% cutoff point. Furthermore, the major cellular fatty acids (> 10.0%) of strains JY.X269 and JY.X270 T were iso -C 15:0 , iso -C 16:0 , and summed feature 9. Strain JY.X270 T contained MK-8(H 4 ) and ornithine as the predominant menaquinone and diagnostic diamino acid component within the cell wall teichoic acids. β-cryptoxanthin (C 40 H 56 O) can be extracted from strain JY.X270 T , and its content is 6.3 µg/ml. Based on results from the phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic, and phenotypic analyses, the two strains could be classified as a novel species of the genus Ornithinimicrobium , for which the name Ornithinimicrobium cryptoxanthini sp. nov. is proposed (type strain JY.X270 T = CGMCC 1.19147 T = JCM 34882 T ).