Nocardiopsis codii sp. nov., and Rhodococcus chondri sp. nov., two novel actinomycetal species isolated from macroalgae collected in the northern Portuguese coast

Two novel actinomycetal strains, designated CC-R113^T and CC-R104^T, were isolated from the tissues of two macroalgae collected on the northern Portuguese coast. Phylogenetic analyses based on the 16S rRNA gene showed that strain CT-R113^T belongs to the genus <i>Nocardiopsis</i>, being closely related to <i>Nocardiopsis umidischolae</i> 66/93^T and <i>Nocardiopsis tropica</i> VKM Ac-1457^T, with 98.65 and 98.39 % sequence similarity, respectively. The clade formed between the three type strains was confirmed by phylogenomic analysis. The genome of strain CT-R113^T was 7.27 Mb in size with a G+C content of 71.3 mol %, with average nucleotide identity (ANI) values of 89.59 and 90.14 % with strains 66/93^T and VKM Ac-1457^T, respectively. The major cellular fatty acids were identified as C_{18 : 1} <i> ω</i>9<i>c</i>, iso-C_{16 : 0} and anteiso-C_{17 : 0}. Menaquinone 10 (MK-10) was the major respiratory quinone. Comparative analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain CC-R104^T belongs to the genus <i>Rhodococcus</i> and is most closely related to <i>Rhodococcus pyridinivorans</i> DSM 44555^T, with 98.24 % sequence similarity. However, phylogenomic analysis revealed that strain CC-R104^T establishes a clade with <i>Rhodococcus artemisae</i> DSM 45380^T, being more distant from <i>Rhodococcus pyridinivorans</i> DSM 44555^T. The genome of strain CC-R104^T was 5.34 Mb in size with a G+C content of 67.01 mol%. The ANI value between strains CC-R104^T and DSM 45380^T was 81.2 % and between strains CC-R104^T and DSM 44555^T was 81.5 %. The major cellular fatty acids were identified as C_{18 : 1} <i> ω</i>9<i>c</i>, C_{16 : 0} and summed feature 3. Menaquinone 8 (MK-8) was the only respiratory quinone. For both CC-R113^T and CC-R104^T, optimum growth was observed at pH 7.0, 28 °C and 0-5 % NaCl and whole-cell hydrolysates contained <i>meso</i>-diaminopimelic acid as the cell-wall diamino acid. On the basis of phenotypic, molecular and chemotaxonomic characteristics, strains CT-R113^T and CC-R104^T are considered to represent novel species, for which the names <i>Nocardiopsis codii</i> sp. nov. (type strain CT-R113^T=LMG33234^T=UCCCB172^T) and <i>Rhodococcus chondri</i> sp. nov. (type strain CC-R104^T=LMG33233^T=UCCCB171^T) are proposed.