Kocuria polaris sp. nov., an orange-pigmented psychrophilic bacterium isolated from an Antarctic cyanobacterial mat sample

Abstract

Strain CMS 76or^T, an orange-pigmented bacterium, was isolated from a cyanobacterial mat sample from a pond located in McMurdo Dry Valley, Antarctica. On the basis of chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic properties, strain CMS 76or^T was identified as a member of the genus Kocuria. It exhibited a 16S rDNA similarity of 99·8% and DNA-DNA similarity of 71% with Kocuria rosea (ATCC 186^T). Phenotypic traits confirmed that strain CMS 76or^T and K. rosea were well differentiated. Furthermore, strain CMS 76or^T could be differentiated from the other reported species of Kocuria, namely Kocuria kristinae (ATCC 27570^T), Kocuria varians (ATCC 15306^T), Kocuria rhizophila (DSM 11926^T) and Kocuria palustris (DSM 11025^T), on the basis of a number of phenotypic features. Therefore, it is proposed that strain CMS 76or^T (=MTCC 3702^T =DSM 14382^T) be assigned to a novel species of the genus Kocuria, as Kocuria polaris.