Agrococcus citreus sp. nov., isolated from a medieval wall painting of the chapel of Castle Herberstein (Austria).

Abstract

A bacterial strain, D-1/1aT, isolated from a medieval wall painting of the chapel of Herberstein (Styria, Austria) was characterized by a polyphasic approach. Strain D-1/1aT shared 98.1% 16S rRNA sequence similarity to Agrococcus jenensis. The chemotaxonomic characteristics including polar lipid pattern, whole cell sugars, quinone system, polyamine pattern, cell wall composition and fatty acid profile were in good agreement with those of Agrococcus jenensis. The G+C content of the DNA was determined to be 74 mol%. The value of 47% DNA reassociation obtained after DNA-DNA hybridization between DNA of Agrococcus jenensis and strain D-1/1aT as well as differences in the amino acid composition of the peptidoglycan and in physiological characteristics demonstrate that the isolate represents a new species of the genus Agrococcus. The name Agrococcus citreus sp. nov. is proposed for the new species harbouring isolate D-1/1aT. The type strain is DSM 12453T.