Kitasatospora hibisci sp. nov., a novel actinomycete with antimicrobial potential isolated from rhizosphere soil of Hibiscus tiliaceus in Guangxi

A novel <i>Kitasatospora</i> strain, designated as HNM1077^T, was isolated from rhizosphere soil of <i>Hibiscus tiliaceus</i> collected from the bank of the Beilun River in Dongxing City, Guangxi Province, China. The novel strain exhibited antimicrobial activity against a wide range of microbes, particularly Gram--negative bacteria and plant pathogenic fungi. Based on the alignment of 16S rRNA gene sequences, strain HNM1077^T was closely related to <i>Kitasatospora aburaviensis</i> NRRL B-2218^T (99.51%). Comparisons based on genome sequencing showed that strain HNM1077^T was distinguished from its nearest species by average nucleotide identity of 94.36% and a digital DNA-DNA hybridization value of 54.3%. The G+C content of strain HNM1077^T was 73.1 mol%. The main fatty acids of strain HNM1077^T were <i>iso</i>-C_15:0 (21.5%), <i>anteiso</i>-C_15:0 (11.7%), <i>iso</i>-C_16:0 (8.6%), <i>iso</i>-C_17:0 (9.3%) and <i>anteiso</i>-C_17:0 (8.7%). The predominant menaquinone was MK-9 (H₈). The major polar lipids of strain HNM1077^T consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, diphosphatidylglycerol and glycosylphosphatidylinositol. Based on these polyphasic taxonomic results, strain HNM1077^T represents a novel <i>Kitasatospora</i> species, for which the name <i>Kitasatospora hibisci</i> sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is HNM1077^T (=CCTCC AA 2024052^T=KCTC 59330^T).