Abstract

A polyphasic study was undertaken to establish the taxonomic provenance of a rapidly growing Mycolicibacterium strain, CECT 8783(T), recovered from the plant Stellera chamaejasme L. in Yunnan Province, China. Phylogenetic analyses based upon 16S rRNA and whole-genome sequences showed that the strain formed a distinct branch within the evolutionary radiation of the genus Mycolicibacterium. The strain was most closely related to Mycolicibacterium moriokaense DSM 44221(T) with 98.4 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, but was distinguished readily from this taxon by a combination of chemotaxonomic and phenotypic features and by low average nucleotide identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values of 79.5 and 21.1 %, respectively. Consequently, the strain is considered, to represent a novel species of Mycolicibacterium for which the name Mycolicibacterium stellerae sp. nov is proposed; the type strain is I10A-01893(T) (=CECT 8783(T)=KCTC 19843(T)=DSM 45590(T)).