, was isolated from the rhizosphere of a fig tree and was characterized using a polyphasic approach. The isolate formed branching, non-fragmenting vegetative hyphae and produced black pigment on yeast extract/malt extract (ISP medium 2). The G+C content of the DNA was 76.6 mol%. The organism had chemotaxonomic characteristics typical of the genus Actinoalloteichus and was closely related to the type strains of Actinoalloteichus cyanogriseus, Actinoalloteichus spitiensis and Actinoalloteichus hymeniacidonis, currently the only three recognized species of the genus Actinoalloteichus, sharing 16S rRNA gene similarities of 96.4, 96.6 and 98.1 %, respectively. However, the results of DNA-DNA hybridization studies demonstrated that the novel strain showed only 46.8 % relatedness with the type strain of A. hymeniacidonis. In addition, a set of phenotypic characteristics also readily distinguished strain NEAU 119T from the type strains of recognized species of the genus Actinoalloteichus. According to the above data, it is proposed that strain NEAU 119 T represents a novel species, Actinoalloteichus nanshanensis sp. nov. The type strain of Actinoalloteichus nanshanensis is NEAU 119 T (5CGMCC 4.5714The genus Actinoalloteichus proposed by Tamura et al. , 2006). As part of a programme to discover actinomycetes with novel antibiotic production properties, an aerobic actinomycete strain, NEAU 119 T , was isolated. In this study, the taxonomic status of this strain is reported based on phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and phenotypic evidence. It is proposed that strain NEAU 119 T should be classified as representing a novel species of the genus Actinoalloteichus. Strain NEAU 119T was isolated from mud of the rhizosphere of a fig tree (Ficus religiosa) collected from Nanshan Temple, Guangxi Province, south China (23 u 69 N 109 u 369 E). The collection site was located in the subtropical rainforest region, where annual average rainfall is 1250-1750 mm, the annual average temperature is~16-23 u C and the soil pH is 6.5. The strain was isolated using the standard dilution plate method and grown on humic acid-vitamin agar (HV) (Hayakawa & Nonomura, 1987) supplemented with nystatin (50 mg l 21) and nalidixic acid (20 mg l 21 ). After 21 days of aerobic incubation at 28 u C, colonies were transferred and purified on oatmeal agar (ISP 3 medium) and maintained as glycerol suspensions (20 %, v/v) at 280 u C.Cultures grown on oatmeal agar for 2-3 weeks at 28 u C were observed by light and scanning electron microscopy. Cultural characteristics were observed on a number of standard media (Table 1) after 2 weeks at 28 u C. The utilization of sole carbon source, decomposition of urea and cellulose, hydrolysis of aesculin and hippurate, utilization of calcium malate, sodium oxalate and sodium succinate, reduction of nitrate, growth in Sabouraud's dextrose broth and MacConkey agar, gelatin liquefaction and H 2 S production were examined as described previously (Gordon et al., 1974;Yokota et al., 1993). Growth over a range of temperatures, pH va...

Background: 2,3,5,6-Tetramethylpyrazine (TMP) is a popular food flavour additive. This biologically active ingredient has additional potential dietotherapy functions, such as in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health. Previous production methods from renewable materials suffer from low yields and efficiency which seriously hampers the scaling up of the laboratory processes.

The phylum Actinobacteria has been reported to be common or even abundant in deep marine sediments, however, knowledge about the diversity, distribution, and function of actinobacteria is limited. In this study, actinobacterial diversity in the deep sea along the Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR) was investigated using both 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing and culture-based methods. The samples were collected at depths of 1662–4000 m below water surface. Actinobacterial sequences represented 1.2–9.1% of all microbial 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequences in each sample. A total of 5 actinobacterial classes, 17 orders, 28 families, and 52 genera were detected by pyrosequencing, dominated by the classes Acidimicrobiia and Actinobacteria. Differences in actinobacterial community compositions were found among the samples. The community structure showed significant correlations to geochemical factors, notably pH, calcium, total organic carbon, total phosphorus, and total nitrogen, rather than to spatial distance at the scale of the investigation. In addition, 176 strains of the Actinobacteria class, belonging to 9 known orders, 18 families, and 29 genera, were isolated. Among these cultivated taxa, 8 orders, 13 families, and 15 genera were also recovered by pyrosequencing. At a 97% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, the pyrosequencing data encompassed 77.3% of the isolates but the isolates represented only 10.3% of the actinobacterial reads. Phylogenetic analysis of all the representative actinobacterial sequences and isolates indicated that at least four new orders within the phylum Actinobacteria were detected by pyrosequencing. More than half of the isolates spanning 23 genera and all samples demonstrated activity in the degradation of refractory organics, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polysaccharides, suggesting their potential ecological functions and biotechnological applications for carbon recycling.