A pink-coloured, Gram-stain-positive, aerobic and rod-shaped strain, designated 75T, was isolated from Collins glacier front till, Antarctica. Strain 75T was non-motile and non-spore-forming. Growth was observed at pH 6.0–9.0 (optimum, pH 7.0), at 4–45 °C (optimum, 20 °C) and with 0–9 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 1%). Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain 75T belongs to the genus
Rhodococcus
, and is related to
Rhodococcus gannanensis
DSM 104003T,
Rhodococcus aerolatus
KCTC29240T and
Rhodococcus agglutinans
KCTC 39118T (96.1, 96.0 and 95.7 % sequence similarity, respectively). The main polar lipids were identified as diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylinositol mannoside and a phosphoglycolipid. The major cellular fatty acids were identified as C16 : 0, iso- C16 : 0, 10-methyl C17 : 0 and C17 : 1
ω8c. MK-7 and MK-8(H4) were found to be the dominant menaquinones. Whole-cell hydrolysates contained meso-diaminopimelic acid, ribose, galactose, glucose and rhamnose. The genome of strain 75T is 3.82 Mb long in size with a G+C content of 73.1 mol%. On the basis of phenotypic, molecular and chemotaxonomic characteristics, strain 75T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus
Rhodococcus
, for which the name Rhodococcus antarcticus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 75T (=CCTCC AA 2019032T=KCTC 49334T).