Nocardiopsis metallicus sp. nov., a metal-leaching actinomycete isolated from an alkaline slag dump.

A taxonomic study was carried out on a metal-mobilizing, alkaliphilic bacterium from an alkaline slag dump, strain KBS6(T). The strain produced substrate and aerial mycelia. Growth occurred in the pH range 7.0-10.5, with an optimum at pH 8.5. A salt concentration of up to 10% was tolerated, and various organic substrates were used for growth. The results of a 16S rDNA sequence comparison revealed that strain KBS6(T) belongs to the genus Nocardiopsis. DNA-DNA hybridization with the two closest relatives, Nocardiopsis exhalans and Nocardiopsis prasina, gave similarity values of 18.2 and 44.1%, respectively, which indicated that strain KBS6(T) represents a novel species of the genus Nocardiopsis. This is consistent with the morphological, physiological and chemotaxonomic data. Because of the ability of this micro-organism to solubilize metals, the name Nocardiopsis metallicus sp. nov. is proposed for strain KBS6(T) (= DSM 44598(T) = NRRL B-24159(T)), this being the type strain.