Abstract

A Micromonospora strain, designated 5R2A7(T), isolated from a high altitude Atacama Desert soil was examined by using a polyphasic approach. Strain 5R2A7(T) was found to have morphological, chemotaxonomic and cultural characteristics typical of members of the genus Micromonospora. The cell wall contains meso- and hydroxy-diaminopimelic acid, the major whole-cell sugars are glucose, ribose and xylose, the predominant menaquinones MK-10(H-4), MK-10(H-6), MK-10(H-8) and MK-9(H-6), the major polar lipids diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol and an unknown glycolipid, and the predominant cellular fatty acids iso-C-16:0, iso(C15)(:0) and 10-methyl C-17:0 . The digital genomic DNA G+C content is 72.3 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain 5R2A7(T) was closely related to Micromonospora coriariae DSM 44875(T) (99.8 %) and Micromonospora cremea CR30(T) (99.7 %), and was separated readily from the latter, its closest phylogenetic neighbour, based on gyrB and multilocus sequence data, by low average nucleotide identity (92.59 %) and in silico DNA-DNA relatedness (51.7%) values calculated from draft genome assemblies and by a range of chemotaxonomic and phenotypic properties. Consequently, strain 5R2A7(T) is considered to represent a novel species of Micromonospora for which the name Micromonospora acroterricola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 5R2A7(T) (=LMG 30755(T) =CECT 9656(T)).