Luteipulveratus mongoliensis gen. nov., sp. nov., an actinobacterial taxon in the family Dermacoccaceae A novel actinobacterial strain, MN07-A0370 T , was isolated from Mongolian soil and its taxonomic status was determined using a polyphasic approach. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence studies revealed that strain MN07-A0370 T represented a novel lineage within the actinobacteria. Strain MN07-A0370 T formed a distinct clade in the family Dermacoccaceae and was most closely related to the members of the genera Dermacoccus (16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, 96.2 %-96.4 %), Demetria (94.1 %) and Kytococcus (93.7 %). The cell-wall peptidoglycan of the novel strain contained L-lysine, alanine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid and serine and represented peptidoglycan type A4a. The menaquinones were MK-8(H 4 ) and MK-8(H 6 ). The polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylinositol and the whole-cell sugars were galactose, mannose, rhamnose, ribose and glucose. Mycolic acids were absent. The fatty acid profile was characterized by the presence of large amounts of saturated iso-and anteisobranched-chain fatty acids as well as smaller amounts of saturated straight-chain and unsaturated acids. The major fatty acids were iso-C 16 : 0 , anteiso-C 17 : 0 , iso-C 16 : 1 H, C 17 : 1 v9c and C 17 : 0 10-methyl. The G+C content of the DNA was 68.2 mol%. On the basis of chemotaxonomic, physiological and biochemical differences from other genera of the family Dermacoccaceae, strain MN07-A0370 T should be classified as representing a novel species in a new genus, for which we propose the name Luteipulveratus mongoliensis gen. nov., sp. nov. The type strain is MN07-A0370 T (5NBRC 105296 T 5VTCC D9-09 T ).Mongolia is one of the largest Asian countries and is unique in its environmental traits. Recently, these environments have attracted the attention of naturalists and other researchers looking for novel actinomycetes (Norovsuren et al., 2007). In a programme aimed at isolating novel rare actinomycetes from Mongolia as a potential source of bioactive secondary metabolites, strain MN07-A0370 T , in the family Dermacoccaceae (Stackebrandt & Schumann, 2000), was studied to establish its taxonomic status. The family Dermacoccaceae currently contains three recognized genera, Dermacoccus and Kytococcus (Stackebrandt et al., 1995) and Demetria (Groth et al., 1997a). Isolates assigned to this family are typically associated with terrestrial habitats, notably cured meat products, skin, human blood and soil (De la Rosa et al., 1990;Cordero & Zumalacarregui, 2000;Becker et al., 2002; Papamanoli et al., 2002).Samples of grassland soil were collected in July 2007 from Terelj National Park, Töv Province, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The samples were dried at room temperature for 5-7 days, rehydrated and centrifuged (Hayakawa et al., 2000) and used to inoculate humic acid-vitamin agar (Hayakawa & Nonomura, 1987) containing (l 21 ) 20 mg trimethoprim and 10 mg nalidixic acid. Strain MN07-A0370 T was isolated after incubat...