Streptomyces chiangmaiensis sp. nov. and Streptomyces lannensis sp. nov., isolated from the South-East Asian stingless bee (Tetragonilla collina).

Two novel actinomycetes, strains TA4-1(T) and TA4-8(T,) were isolated from the South-East Asian stingless bee (Tetragonilla collina Smith 1857), collected from Chiang Mai Province, Thailand. The morphological and chemotaxonomic properties of strains TA4-1(T) and TA4-8(T) were consistent with the genus Streptomyces, i.e. the formation of aerial mycelia bearing spiral spore chains, the presence of the ll-isomer of diaminopimelic acid in cell walls, iso- and anteiso-branched fatty acids with carbon chain lengths 14-17 atoms as the major fatty acids and MK-9(H8) as the predominant menaquinone plus minor amounts of MK-9(H6) and MK-9(H10). Analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strains TA4-1(T) and TA4-8(T) exhibited 98.8 and 98.1% sequence similarity, respectively, with Streptomyces chromofuscus NRRL B-12175(T) and 98.9% sequence similarity with each other. This study suggested that strains TA4-1(T) and TA4-8(T) were distinct from previously described species of the genus Streptomyces. In addition, the low degrees of DNA-DNA relatedness between the isolates and S. chromofuscus JCM 4354(T) warranted assigning strains TA4-1(T) and TA4-8(T) to two novel species. The names Streptomyces chiangmaiensis sp. nov. (type strain TA4-1(T)  = JCM 16577(T)  = TISTR 1981(T)) and Streptomyces lannensis sp. nov. (type strain TA4-8(T)  = JCM 16578(T)  = TISTR 1982(T)) are proposed. The species names indicate the geographical locations where the stingless bees reside.