NOCARDIA FLAVOROSEA SP. NOV

An actinomycete strain,'Nocardia flavorosea' JCM 3332, was found to ha ve properties consistent with its classification in the genus Nocardia . An almost complete gene sequence of the 16S rDNA of the strain was d etermined following cloning and sequencing of the amplified gene. The sequence was aligned with those available for nocardiae and phylogenet ic trees were inferred using four tree-making algorithms. The organism s consistently formed a distinct clade with the type strain of Nocardi a carnea. However, DNA relatedness experiments showed that the strain and N. carnea DSM 43397(T) belonged to two distinct genomic species. T he organism was also distinguished from representatives of all of the validly described species of Nocardia using a combination of phenotypi c properties. These genotypic and phenotypic data show that the strain merits recognition as a new species of the genus Nocardia. The name p roposed for the new species is Nocardia flavorosea sp. nov. The type s train is JCM 3332(T).