A novel actinomycete strain, designated KIS14-16T, was isolated from forest soil in Ongjin county, South Korea and characterized using polyphasic taxonomy. The cells are aerobic, Gram-stain-positive, non-flagellated and short rods. The strain grew in a temperature range of 4-33 °C (optimum, 28-30 °C) and pH range of 5.0-10.0 (optimum, 7.0) and in the presence of 0-5 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0 %). Comparison of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain KIS14-16T is a member of the genus Arthrobacter exhibiting high sequence similarity with A. livingstonensis LI2T (97.7 %), A. cryoconiti Cr6-08T (97.6 %), A. psychrochitiniphilus GP3T (97.4 %), A. stackebrandtii CCM 2783T (97.1 %) and A. globiformis DSM 20124T (96.3 %). DNA-DNA relatedness and phenotypic data distinguished strain KIS14-16T from phylogenetically related type strains. The peptidoglycan type of strain KIS14-16T was A3α, with an interpeptide bridge comprising l-Lys, l-Thr, Gly and l-Ala4. Strain KIS14-16T contained a large amount of MK-9(H2) and relatively small amounts of MK-10(H2) and MK-8(H2). The main polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol and dimannosylglyceride. The major fatty acids (>10 %) were anteiso-C15 : 0 and anteiso-C17 : 0. The genomic DNA G+C content was 63.9 mol%. On the basis of these phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data, strain KIS14-16T should be designated as a representative novel species of the genus Arthrobacter, for which the name Arthrobacter silviterrae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is KIS14-16T (=KACC 17303T=DSM 27180T=NBRC 109660T).
Keywords: Arthrobacter; novel species; polyphasic taxonomy; strain KIS14-16.