Tessaracoccus rhinocerotis sp. nov., isolated from the faeces of Rhinoceros unicornis.

A novel Gram-stain-positive, non-spore-forming, irregular rod-shaped, non-motile and facultatively anaerobic actinobacterium, designated strain YIM 101269T, was isolated from the faeces of Rhinoceros unicornis living in Yunnan Wild Animal Park, Yunnan province, south-west China. The isolate grew at 10-35 °C, at pH 6-12 and with 0-9 % (w/v) NaCl. The cell-wall peptidoglycan of the organism contained ll-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. The polar lipids detected were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, three unidentified polar lipids, one unidentified aminophospholipid and three unknown glycolipids. The major cellar fatty acid was anteiso-C15 : 0.MK-10(H4) was the predominant menaquinone. The DNA G+C content was 69.5 mol%. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain YIM 101269T belonged to the genus Tessaracoccus, closely related to Tessaracoccus flavescens DSM 18582T (97.4 % similarity). Based on the evidence from the present study, strain YIM 101269T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Tessaracoccus, for which the name Tessaracoccus rhinocerotis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM 101269T ( = DSM 27579T = CCTCC AB 2013217T).