Reclassification of Streptomyces caeruleus as a synonym of Actinoalloteichus cyanogriseus and reclassification of Streptomyces spheroides and Streptomyces laceyi as later synonyms of Streptomyces niveus.

Previous studies have proposed that Streptomyces caeruleus is an earlier heterotypic synonym for Streptomyces niveus and Streptomyces spheroides. In this study, phylogenetic analysis of the almost complete 16S rRNA gene sequences of the Streptomyces caeruleus type strains NBRC 13344(T), JCM 4014(T) and NRRL B-2194(T) revealed that S. caeruleus was closely related to Actinoalloteichus cyanogriseus and not to S. niveus, S. spheroides or any other species of the genus Streptomyces. Moreover, the diagnostic cell-wall diamino acid was found to be meso-diaminopimelic acid in S. caeruleus and DNA-DNA hybridization studies revealed that S. caeruleus NBRC 13344(T) was a member of the same species as A. cyanogriseus NBRC 14455(T). Based on these chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data, it is proposed that Streptomyces caeruleus (Baldacci 1944) Pridham et al. 1958 be reclassified as a heterotypic synonym of Actinalloteichus cyanogriseus Tamura et al. 2000. Furthermore, based on phylogenetic, morphological and MALDI-TOF MS analyses, it is proposed that the species Streptomyces laceyi Manfio et al. 2004 and Streptomyces spheroides Wallick et al. 1956 are reclassified as later heterotypic synonyms of Streptomyces niveus Smith et al. 1956.