RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Vaishampayan, Parag A1 Moissl-Eichinger, Christine A1 Pukall, Rüdiger A1 Schumann, Peter A1 Spröer, Cathrin A1 Augustus, Angela A1 Roberts, Anne Hayden A1 Namba, Greg A1 Cisneros, Jessica A1 Salmassi, Tina A1 Venkateswaran, KasthuriYR 2013 T1 Description of Tersicoccus phoenicis gen. nov., sp. nov. isolated from spacecraft assembly clean room environments JF International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, VO 63 IS Pt_7 SP 2463 OP 2471 DO https://doi.org/10.1099/ijs.0.047134-0 PB Microbiology Society, SN 1466-5034, AB Two strains of aerobic, non-motile, Gram-reaction-positive cocci were independently isolated from geographically distinct spacecraft assembly clean room facilities (Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA and Centre Spatial Guyanais, Kourou, French Guiana). A polyphasic study was carried out to delineate the taxonomic identity of these two isolates (1P05MAT and KO_PS43). The 16S rRNA gene sequences exhibited a high similarity when compared to each other (100 %) and lower than 96.7 % relatedness with Arthrobacter crystallopoietes ATCC 15481T, Arthrobacter luteolus ATCC BAA-272T, Arthrobacter tumbae DSM 16406T and Arthrobacter subterraneus DSM 17585T. In contrast with previously described Arthrobacter species, the novel isolates maintained their coccidal morphology throughout their growth and did not exhibit the rod–coccus life cycle typically observed in nearly all Arthrobacter species, except A. agilis . The distinct taxonomic identity of the novel isolates was confirmed based on their unique cell-wall peptidoglycan type (A.11.20; Lys-Ser-Ala2) and polar lipid profile (presence of phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, an unknown phospholipid and two unknown glycolipids). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 70.6 mol%. The novel strains revealed MK-9(H2) and MK-8(H2) as dominant menaquinones and exhibited fatty acid profiles consisting of major amounts of anteiso-C15 : 0 and anteiso-C17 : 0 and moderate amounts of iso-C15 : 0 discriminating them again from closely related Arthrobacter species. Based on these observations, the authors propose that strains 1P05MAT and KO_PS43 be assigned into a separate genus Tersicoccus gen. nov. For this new taxon, comprising strains 1P05MAT and KO_PS43, we propose the name Tersicoccus phoenicis gen. nov., sp. nov. (the type species of Tersicoccus), represented by the type strain Tersicoccus phoenicis 1P05MAT ( = NRRL B-59547T = DSM 30849T)., UL https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/ijsem/10.1099/ijs.0.047134-0