Kytococcus aerolatus sp. nov., isolated from indoor air in a room colonized with moulds

A Gram-positive, coccoid bacterial isolate (02-St-019/1T), forming beige pigmented colonies was obtained from an indoor air sample. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity studies it was determined that this isolate 02-St-019/1T belonged to the genus Kytococcus, showing sequence similarties of 98.6% to Kytococcus schroeteri DSM 13884T and 98.3% to Kytococcus sedentarius DSM 20547T, respectively. The diagnostic diaminoacid of the peptidoglycan was lysine, cell wall sugars were ribose and xylose. The major menaquinones detected were MK-7 and MK-8. The polar lipid profile consisted of the major phospholipids diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylinositol mannoside. Fatty acid patterns were composed of major amounts of the iso- and anteiso-branched fatty acids anteiso C17:0, iso C15:0 and iso C17:0 and unsaturated fatty acids (C17:1 ω8c, iso C17:1 ω9c, and C17:1 ω8c) with smaller amounts of the straight-chain fatty acids C15:0, C16:0 and C17:0. The results of DNA–DNA hybridizations and physiological and biochemical tests clearly allowed a genotypic and phenotypic differentiation of strain 02-St-019/1T from the two described Kytococcus species. On the basis of these results a novel species to be named Kytococcus aerolatus sp. nov., is proposed, with the type strain 02-St-019/1T (=DSM 22179T=CCM 7639T).