Deinococcus lichenicola sp. nov., A Bacterium Isolated from a Lichen Sample.

A Gram-stain-positive bacterium, designated as YIM 134068^T, was isolated from a lichen. Strain YIM 134068^T was non-motile, non-spore forming, coccus shaped, oxidase, and catalase positive. Cells could grow at 10-40 °C (optimum 28 °C) and pH 7.0-8.0 (optimum pH 7.0), and they could proliferate in the salinity range of 0-3.0% (w/v) NaCl. Strain YIM 134068^T possessed MK-8 as the major respiratory quinone, and its predominant cellular fatty acids (> 10%) were summed feature 3 (C_16:1ω7c and/or C_16:1ω6c), C_16:0N alcohol, and C_16:0. Polar lipids comprised of phosphatidyl ethanolamine, two unidentified phospholipids, and seven unindentified phosphoglycolipids. Phylogenetic analysis using 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain YIM 134068^T shared the highest sequence similarities with Deinococcus aetherius ST0316^T (93.2%) and Deinococcus aestuarii SYSU M49105^T (92.1%). The DNA G + C content of YIM 134068^T was 69.1% and the average nucleotide identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain YIM 134068^T and the reference strains were 82.6-83.0% and 26.3-26.7%, respectively. Based on the phylogenetic and phenotypic analyses, strain YIM 134068^T is considered to represent a novel species within the genus Deinococcus, for which the name Deinococcus lichenicola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM 134068^T = CGMCC 1.61729^T = MCCC 1K08693^T = NBRC 117087 ^T.