An endophytic Streptomyces-like micro-organism, designated strain PRB2-1T was isolated from root tissue of Epipremnum aureum (Linden and André) G.S. Bunting. The typical morphological and chemotaxonomic characteristics, i.e. the ability to produce straight spore chains directly on aerial mycelium and the presence of ll-diaminopimelic acid in cell-wall peptidoglycan, were consistent with its assignment to the genus Streptomyces. 16S rRNA gene analysis showed that strain PRB2-1T is a member of the genus Streptomyces with the highest similarity to Streptomyces bryophytorum DSM 42183T (98.4 %). Moreover, the draft genome sequence of strain PRB2-1T exhibited low average nucleotide identity by blast (79.9-83.8 %) and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (24.9-28.3 %) values to the reference strains, which were well below the species circumscription threshold. The DNA G+C content of genomic DNA was 73.6 mol%. Comparison of phenotypic characteristics and whole-genome sequence between strain PRB2-1T and its close relatives indicated that strain PRB2-1T could be classified as a novel species of the genus Streptomyces. Thus the name, Streptomyces epipremni sp. nov. is proposed for the strain. The type strain is PRB2-1T (=TBRC 7642T=NBRC 113169T).
Keywords: 16S rRNA gene; Epipremnum aureum; Streptomyces; endophytic actinomycete; whole-gemone analysis.