Phenotypic and genomic characteristics of Brevibacterium zhoupengii sp. nov., a novel halotolerant actinomycete isolated from bat feces

Two strictly aerobic, Gram-staining-positive, non-spore-forming, regular rod-shaped (approximately 0.7 × 1.9 mm) bacteria (HY170(T) and HY001) were isolated from bat feces collected from Chongzuo city, Guangxi province (22°20′54″N, 106°49′20″E, July 2011) and Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan province (25°09′10″N, 102°04′39″E, October 2013) of South China, respectively. Optimal growth is obtained at 25–28°C (range, 4–32°C) on BHI-5% sheep blood plate with pH 7.5 (range, 5.0–10.0) in the presence of 0.5–1.0% NaCl (w/v) (range, 0–15% NaCl [w/v]). The phylogenetic and phylogenomic trees based respectively on the 16S rRNA gene and 845 core gene sequences revealed that the two strains formed a distinct lineage within the genus Brevibacterium, most closely related to B. aurantiacum NCDO 739(T) (16S rRNA similarity, both 98.5%; dDDH, 46.7–46.8%; ANI, 91.9–92.1%). Strain HY170(T) contained MK-8(H(2)), diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG) and phosphatidylglycerol (PG), galactose and ribose as the predominant menaquinone, major polar lipids, and main sugars in the cell wall teichoic acids, respectively. The meso-diaminopimelic acid (meso-DAP) was the diagnostic diamino acid of the peptidoglycan found in strain HY170(T). Anteiso-C(15:0) and anteiso-C(17:0) were the major fatty acids (> 10%) of strains HY170(T) and HY001, with anteiso-C(17:1)A predominant in strain HY170(T) but absent in strain HY001. Mining the genomes revealed the presence of secondary metabolite biosynthesis gene clusters encoding for non-alpha poly-amino acids (NAPAA), ectoine, siderophore, and terpene. Based on results from the phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and phenotypic analyses, the two strains could be classified as a novel species of the genus Brevibacterium, for which the name Brevibacterium zhoupengii sp. nov. is proposed (type strain HY170(T) = CGMCC 1.18600(T) = JCM 34230(T)). Supplemental material for this article may be found at 10.1007/s12275-022-2134-8.