Allonocardiopsis opalescens gen. nov., sp. nov., a new member of the suborder Streptosporangineae, from the surface-sterilized fruit of a medicinal plant.

An endophytic actinomycete, designated strain I10A-01259(T), was isolated from a surface-sterilized fruit of Lonicera maackii (Rupr.) Maxim., a medicinal plant, which was collected from a suburb of Beijing, China. Whole-cell hydrolysates of the isolate contained galactose and meso-diaminopimelic acid. The predominant phospholipids were phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol; the menaquinones consisted mainly of MK-9, MK-11 and MK-12, with a minor amount of MK-10. The major fatty acids were iso-C16 : 0, anteiso-C15 : 0 and iso-C15 : 0. Comparative analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain I10A-01259(T) was most closely related to Nocardiopsis arabia S186(T) (93.2 % sequence similarity), Thermobifida halotolerans YIM 90462(T) (93.0 %) and other strains of genera within the families Nocardiopsaceae and Thermomonosporaceae. On the phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, strain I10A-01259(T) fell within the radius of the suborder Streptosporangineae, in which the strain formed a distinct lineage next to the genera of the families Nocardiopsaceae and Thermomonosporaceae. Based on the data from our polyphasic taxonomic study, a novel genus and species, Allonocardiopsis opalescens gen. nov., sp. nov., are proposed within the suborder Streptosporangineae. The type strain of Allonocardiopsis opalescens is strain I10A-01259(T) ( = CPCC 203428(T)  = DSM 45601(T)  = KCTC 19844(T)).