A PROPOSAL TO REVIVE THE GENUS KITASATOSPORA (OMURA, TAKAHASHI, IWAI,AND TANAKA 1982)

We determined almost complete 16S ribosomal DNA sequences for 12 actin omycete strains which wept either previously classified as Kitasatospo ra strains of defined as Streptomyces strains but shown to contain maj or amounts of meso-diaminopimelic acid in their whole-cell hydrolysate s. These sequences were subjected to phylogenetic analyses together wi th the sequences of 34 Streptomyces species. Phylogenetic trees were r econstructed by using both neighbor-joining and maximum-parsimony meth ods, The Kitasatospora species always formed a stable monophyletic cla de, However, the genus Kitasatospora appeared to be either a sister ta r;un as the genus Streptomyces or a lineage that originated from withi n Streptomyces species, depending on the outgroup used, Phylogenetic t rees were also constructed by using the sequences of the 16S-23S rRNA gene spacers, Streptomyces and Kitasatospora species were consistently recovered as two distinct clades independent of the outgroup used. On the basis of phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic, and phenotypic evidence, w e propose that the genus Kitasatospora Omura et al. 1982 should be rev ived.