POLYPHASIC EVIDENCE FOR THE TRANSFER OF RHODOCOCCUS-ROSEUS TO RHODOCOCCUS-RHODOCHROUS

Investigation of fatty acid and mycolic acid properties of certain mem bers of the genera Nocardia and Rhodococcus indicated identical spectr a for certain pairs of organisms. Binary 16S rDNA sequence homology fo r the pairs Rhodococcus rhodochrous and R. roseus, Nocardia calcarea a nd R. erythropolis, and N. reshicta and R. equi ranged between 99.2 an d 99.9% for each of these pairs of species, Corresponding DNA-DNA simi larity values, obtained by the spectrophotometric method, were signifi cantly higher than 70%, Because certain chemotaxonomic properties and the majority of published phenotypic characters support the high degre e of relatedness, we propose to transfer R, roseus to R. rhodochrous. The transfer of N. calcarea to R. erythropolis, and the transfer of No cardia restricta to Rhodococcus equi (M. Goodfellow, p. 1472-1481, in P. H. A. Sneath et al., ed., Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriolog y, vol, 2, 1986) is confirmed.