Actinocorallia cavernae sp. nov., isolated from a natural cave in Jeju, Korea.

A novel actinomycete, strain N3-7T, was isolated from a natural cave in Jeju, Republic of Korea, using a dilution method and was subjected to characterization using polyphasic taxonomy. A 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that the organism belonged to the phylogenetic cluster of the genus Actinocorallia and was most closely related to Actinocorallia glomerata and Actinocorallia longicatena (97.6 and 97.5 % similarity, respectively). The main chemotaxonomic properties of strain N3-7T, such as the principal amino acid of the peptidoglycan, the predominant menaquinone and the polar lipid profile, supported classification in the genus Actinocorallia. The organism was readily differentiated from Actinocorallia species with validly published names on the basis of a broad range of phenotypic properties. Thus the isolate represents a novel species of the genus Actinocorallia, for which the name Actinocorallia cavernae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is strain N3-7T (=JCM 13278T=NRRL B-24429T).