A new genus of the family Micromonosporaceae, Polymorphospora gen. nov., with description of Polymorphospora rubra sp. nov.

Two actinomycete strains were isolated from soil surrounding mangrove roots. The isolates formed short spore chains with spores showing diverse shapes. The isolates contained glutamic acid, glycine, alanine and meso-diaminopimelic acid in the cell wall, 3-O-methylmannose, mannose, galactose and glucose as the whole-cell sugars and MK-10(H(6)), MK-10(H(4)), MK-9(H(6)) and MK-9(H(4)) as the predominant isoprenoid quinones. The isolates formed a distinct taxon in the phylogenetic tree of the Micromonosporaceae based on analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences and showed chemical and phenotypic properties that were different from members of all of the other genera of this family. Based on these observations, it is proposed that the novel isolates belong to a new genus, Polymorphospora gen. nov. The type species of the genus is proposed as Polymorphospora rubra sp. nov., with strain TT 97-42(T) (=NBRC 101157(T)=DSM 44947(T)) as the type strain.