Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) has emerged as one of the most troublesome pathogens in health care institutions. A. baumannii can cause a wide range of diseases in humans, including pneumonia and septicemia. Phage therapy has drawn great interest from medical researchers as a potential way to control infections by antibioticresistant A. baumannii. Using a pandrug-resistant clinical A. baumannii isolate AB ZY 9 as an indicator, we isolated a lytic phage Abp9 from hospital sewage. Abp9 belongs to myoviridae family and shows a wider host range of 12%. Abp9 contains a linear double-stranded DNA genome of 44,820 bp with a G + C content of 37.69%. The Abp9 genome contains 80 open reading frames, but lacks any known virulence genes or lysogen-formation genes. In a systemic A. baumannii infection mouse models, Abp9 treatment showed good therapeutic effects. We have also observed an excellent lytic activity against A. baumannii in biofilm form of growth in vitro. All of these suggest that Abp9 is a good candidate for the phage therapy against drug-resistant A. baumannii infections.

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A new endophytic bacterium, designated strain MQZ13P-4T was isolated from Sonneratia apetala collected from Maowei sea Mangrove Nature Reserve in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, PR China. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity between strain MQZ13P-4T and its closest phylogenetic neighbour Jiella endophytica CBS5Q-3T was 97.9 %. Phylogenetic analyses using 16S rRNA gene sequences and whole-genome sequences showed that strain MQZ13P-4T formed a distinct lineage with Jiella endophytica CBS5Q-3T, Jiella pacifica 40Bstr34T and Jiella aquimaris JCM 30119T. The draft genome of strain MQZ13P-4T was 5 153 243 bp in size and its DNA G+C content was 68.1 mol%. Comparative genome analysis revealed that the average nucleotide identity, digital DNA–DNA hybridization and average amino acid identity values among strain MQZ13P-4T and other related species were below the cut-off levels of 95, 70 and 95.5 %, respectively. The cell-wall peptidoglycan of strain MQZ13P-4T contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. The respiratory quinone was Q-10. The major cellular fatty acid was C18 : 1  ω7c. The polar lipids comprised phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, two unidentified aminolipids and two unidentified lipids. Strain MQZ13P-4T had a typical chemical compositions of fatty acids, lipids, quinones and diagnostic diamino acid for Jiella species, but could be distinguished from known species of the genus Jiella . Based on polyphasic evidence, strain MQZ13P-4T represents novel species of the genus Jiella , for which the name Jiella sonneratiae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is MQZ13P-4T (=CGMCC 1.18727T=JCM 34333T).

A Gram-positive, aerobic, coccus-shaped, non-spore-forming actinobacterium, designated strain M1HQ-2, was isolated from a surface-sterilized bark of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi collected from Guizhou, China and tested using a polyphasic approach to determine its taxonomic position. Strain M1HQ-2 grew at 4-37 °C (optimum, 30 °C), pH 5.0-11.0 (pH 8.0) and in the presence of 0-15 % (w/v) NaCl (1-3 %). Substrate mycelia and aerial mycelia were not formed, and diffusible pigments were not observed on any media tested. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain M1HQ-2 belonged to the genus Brachybacterium and had the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 97.6 % to Brachybacteriumsquillarum M-6-3. Strain M1HQ-2 contained MK-7 as the dominant menaquinone. The cell-wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid. The polar lipids profile of strain M1HQ-2 contained diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, an unidentified phospholipid and an unidentified lipid. The predominant fatty acids were anteiso-C15 : 0 and anteiso-C17 : 0. The DNA G+C content of strain M1HQ-2 was 71.0 mol%. The average nucleotide identity value between strain M1HQ-2 and type strain of Brachybacterium sacelli was 76.7 %. The estimated DNA-DNA hybridization value between strain M1HQ-2 and type strain of B. sacelli was 20.6 %. On the basis of phylogenetic analysis, chemotaxonomic characteristics and phenotypic data, strain M1HQ-2 represents a novel species of the genus Brachybacterium, for which the name Brachybacteriumendophyticum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is M1HQ-2 (=KCTC 49087=CGMCC 1.16391).