Description of unrecorded bacterial species belonging to the phylum Actinobacteria in Korea

Abstract

The phylum Actinobacteria is one of the largest groups in the domain Bacteria (Goodfellow, 2012). In recent years, a proper hierarchical classification system for this group was established based on genome analysis. Conse­ quently, on August 2020, the phylum Actinobacteria con­ sisted of 6 classes, 46 orders, 78 families and more than 400 genera [LPSN (https://www.bacterio.net/); Salam et al., 2020]. Members of the phylum Actinobacteria showed great diversity in terms of their habitat, morphology and physi­ o logy (Goodfellow and Williams, 1983). Actinobacterial species are relatively abundant in terrestrial and aquatic environments where they are involved in the decomposi­ tion and recycling of organic matter (Servin et al., 2008). In addition to their saprophytic property, several genera, such as Mycobacterium, Corynebacterium (Dangle et al., 2019) and Clavibacter (Hwang et al., 2019), are patho­ genic to animals (including humans) and plants (Qin et al., 2011). Also, endophytic actinobacteria have been isolated from a variety of healthy plants (Qin et al., 2011). In Korea, 329 species with valid names were isolated from various natural environments, fermented foods, waste water, compost and clinical specimens [LPSN (https:// www.bacterio.net/); Bae et al., 2016]. Moreover, 249 un­ Journal of Species Research 10(1):23­45, 2021