Improved methods for selective isolation of diverse actinomycetes of the genus Micromonospora and a genus-specific nested PCR for rapid identification of putative Micromonospora isolates were developed. The robustness of both the isolation and the identification approach was underpinned by phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences.

An aerobic, non-motile actinobacterium, strain QAIII60 T , was isolated from virgin forest soil of Kanas Nature Reserve, Xinjiang, north-west China. The isolate produced a very scant aerial mycelium that fragmented into cylindrical spores and a non-fragmented substrate mycelium with occasional septa. Whole-cell hydrolysates contained meso-diaminopimelic acid, arabinose, galactose, glucose, ribose and rhamnose (trace). The diagnostic polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, hydroxyphosphatidylethanolamine and ninhydrin-positive phosphoglycolipids. The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C 16 : 0 , iso-C 14 : 0 , iso-C 16 : 1 H and C 17 : 1 v6c. The isoprenoid quinones consisted of MK-9(H 4 ) and MK-10(H 2 ). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 72.5 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain QAIII60T formed a distinct phyletic line that was most closely, albeit loosely, associated with the genus Actinophytocola. A number of physiological characteristics differentiated the isolate from members of the genus Actinophytocola. On the basis of these data, we propose that strain QAIII60 T (5CGMCC 4.4663 T 5NBRC 106673 T ) be assigned as the type strain of a novel species, Actinophytocola xinjiangensis sp. nov.