Species of the genus Streptomyces, which constitute the vast majority of taxa within the family Streptomycetaceae, are a predominant component of the microbial population in soils throughout the world and have been the subject of extensive isolation and screening efforts over the years because they are a major source of commercially and medically important secondary metabolites. Taxonomic characterization of Streptomyces strains has been a challenge due to the large number of described species, greater than any other microbial genus, resulting from academic and industrial activities. The methods used for characterization have evolved through several phases over the years from those based largely on morphological observations, to subsequent classifications based on numerical taxonomic analyses of standardized sets of phenotypic characters and, most recently, to the use of molecular phylogenetic analyses of gene sequences. The present phylogenetic study examines almost all described species (615 taxa) within the family Streptomycetaceae based on 16S rRNA gene sequences and illustrates the species diversity within this family, which is observed to contain 130 statistically supported clades, as well as many unsupported and single member clusters. Many of the observed clades are consistent with earlier morphological and numerical taxonomic studies, but it is apparent that insufficient variation is present in the 16S rRNA gene sequence within the species of this family to permit bootstrap-supported resolution of relationships between many of the individual clusters.

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Taxonomic re-evaluation of whorl-forming Streptomyces (formerly Streptoverticillium) species by using phenotypes, DNA-DNA hybridization and sequences of gyrB, and proposal of Streptomyces luteireticuli (ex Katoh and Arai 1957) corrig., sp. nov., nom. rev. The taxonomic status of 64 strains of whorl-forming Streptomyces (formerly Streptoverticillium) species was re-evaluated and strains were reclassified on the basis of their phenotypes, DNA-DNA hybridization data and partial sequences of gyrB, the structural gene of the B subunit of DNA gyrase. These strains, which consisted of 46 species and eight subspecies with validly published names and 13 species whose names have not been validly published [including 10 strains examined by the International Streptomyces Project (ISP)], were divided into two groups, namely typical and atypical whorl-forming Streptomyces species, based on their phenotypes and gyrB gene sequences. The typical whorl-forming species (59 strains) were divided into six major clusters of three or more species, seven minor clusters of two species and five single-member clusters, based on the threshold value of 97 % gyrB sequence similarity. Major clusters were typified by Streptomyces abikoensis, Streptomyces cinnamoneus, Streptomyces distallicus, Streptomyces griseocarneus, Streptomyces hiroshimensis and Streptomyces netropsis. Phenotypically, members of each cluster resembled each other closely except for the S. distallicus cluster, which was divided phenotypically into the S. distallicus and Streptomyces stramineus subclusters, and the S. netropsis cluster, which was divided into the S. netropsis and Streptomyces eurocidicus subclusters. Strains in each minor cluster closely resembled each other phenotypically. DNA-DNA relatedness between the representative species and others in each major cluster and/or subcluster, and between strains in the minor clusters, was >70 %, indicating that the major clusters and/or subclusters and the minor clusters each comprise a single species. It was concluded that 59 strains of typical whorl-forming Streptomyces species consisted of the following 18 species, including subjective synonym(s):

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