Comprehensive genome analysis of two novel Saccharopolyspora strains—Saccharopolyspora montiporae sp. nov. and Saccharopolyspora galaxeae sp. nov. isolated from stony corals in Hainan

Marine actinomycetes exhibit a high level of biodiversity and possess significant potential for the production of high-value secondary metabolites. During the course of investigation of marine actinobacteria from corals, two <i>Saccharopolyspora</i> strains, namely, HNM0983^T and HNM0986^T, were isolated from stony corals collected from the coastal area of Hainan Island. The 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequence analysis revealed that these two strains are putative novel taxa of the genus <i>Saccharopolyspora</i>. Whole-genome sequencing comparisons further confirmed the two strains as belonging to two novel <i>Saccharopolyspora</i> species, which can be distinguished phenotypically and chemically from their current closest phylogenetic relatives. Some genomic information of the genus <i>Saccharopolyspora</i> was compared for evaluating the production capacity of secondary metabolites. A total of 519 biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) from the genus <i>Saccharopolyspora</i> were used for analysis, and terpene BGCs were found to be widespread and most abundant in this genus. In addition, abundant novel BGCs in the genus <i>Saccharopolyspora</i> are not clustered with the known BGCs in the database, indicating that the metabolites of the genus <i>Saccharopolyspora</i> deserve further exploration. On the basis of these presented results, <i>Saccharopolyspora</i> montiporae sp. nov. (type strain = HNM0983^T = CCTCC AA 2020014^T = KCTC 49526^T) and <i>Saccharopolyspora galaxeae</i> sp. nov. (type strain = HNM0986^T = CCTCC AA 2020011^T = KCTC 49524^T) are proposed as the names for the new strains, respectively.