Streptomyces sparsus sp. nov., isolated from a saline and alkaline soil.

A salt- and alkali-tolerant actinomycete strain, YIM 90018(T), was isolated from a saline and alkaline soil sample collected from Qinghai, China. Aerial hyphae of strain YIM 90018(T) were only produced on YIM 82 agar. Vegetative hyphae were well developed and did not fragment. Straight or flexuous (rectiflexibiles) spore chains were produced. The isolate grew well with 25 % (w/v) MgCl(2)  x  6H(2)O and at pH 10. All of these characters indicated that strain YIM 90018(T) belonged to the genus Streptomyces. On the basis of phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence, DNA-DNA hybridization and phenotypic characteristics, strain YIM 90018(T) could be differentiated from all recognized species of the genus Streptomyces. A novel species, Streptomyces sparsus sp. nov., is proposed, with strain YIM 90018(T) ( = CCTCC AA204019(T) = DSM 41858(T)) as the type strain.