A taxonomic study was performed on strain YIM 31775^T, which was isolated from a soil sample collected from Yunnan Province, China. The isolate was chemo-organotrophic, aerobic and Gram-negative. Cells were short rods and motile, with one or more polar flagella. Growth temperature and pH ranged from 4 to 55 °C and 6·5 to 12·0, respectively; the optimum growth temperature and pH were 28–37 °C and 7·0–9·0, respectively. Q-8 was the predominant respiratory lipoquinone. The major fatty acids were C_16 : 1 ω7c (42·4 %) and C_16 : 0 (28·1 %). The DNA G+C content was 62·4±0·3 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain YIM 31775^T should be placed within the family ‘Oxalobacteraceae’, in which it formed a distinct lineage. Based on the high 16S rRNA gene sequence divergence and phenotypic characteristics, it is proposed that strain YIM 31775^T should be classified as representing a novel member of the family ‘Oxalobacteraceae’, for which the name Naxibacter alkalitolerans gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM 31775^T (=CCTCC AA 204003^T=KCTC 12194^T).

A Gram-positive, motile, short-rod-shaped strain, designated YIM 004^T, was isolated from a forest-soil sample collected from Lijiang, Yunnan Province, China, and was investigated using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. The isolate contained chemotaxonomic markers that corresponded to those of its phylogenetic neighbour,Georgenia muralis, i.e. it possessed peptidoglycan type A4αwith lysine as the diagnostic cell-wall diamino acid, the predominant menaquinone was MK-8(H₄) and the major fatty acid was ai-C_15 : 0. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 72.9 mol%. Strain YIM 004^Texhibited a 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 97.3 % and a DNA–DNA relatedness value of 18 % with respect toG. muralisDSM 14418^T. On the basis of the phenotypic and genotypic differences between the isolate andG. muralis, strain YIM 004^Trepresents a novel species of the genusGeorgenia, for which the nameGeorgenia ruaniisp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM 004^T(=CCTCC AB 204065^T=DSM 17458^T=KCTC 19029^T). In addition, an emended description of the genusGeorgeniais presented.

Endophytic actinobacteria are relatively unexplored as potential sources of novel species and novel natural products for medical and commercial exploitation. Xishuangbanna is recognized throughout the world for its diverse flora, especially the rain forest plants, many of which have indigenous pharmaceutical histories. However, little is known about the endophytic actinobacteria of this tropical area. In this work, we studied the diversity of actinobacteria isolated from medicinal plants collected from tropical rain forests in Xishuangbanna. By the use of different selective isolation media and methods, a total of 2,174 actinobacteria were isolated. Forty-six isolates were selected on the basis of their morphologies on different media and were further characterized by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The results showed an unexpected level of diversity, with 32 different genera. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing the isolation of Saccharopolyspora , Dietzia , Blastococcus , Dactylosporangium , Promicromonospora , Oerskovia , Actinocorallia , and Jiangella species from endophytic environments. At least 19 isolates are considered novel taxa by our current research. In addition, all 46 isolates were tested for antimicrobial activity and were screened for the presence of genes encoding polyketide synthetases and nonribosomal peptide synthetases. The results confirm that the medicinal plants of Xishuangbanna represent an extremely rich reservoir for the isolation of a significant diversity of actinobacteria, including novel species, that are potential sources for the discovery of biologically active compounds.

The demand for natural colors is increasing day by day due to harmful effects of some synthetic dyes. Bacterial and fungal pigments provide a readily available alternative source of naturally derived pigments. In contrast to other natural pigments, they have enormous advantages including rapid growth, easy processing, and independence of weather conditions. Apart from colorant, bacterial and fungal pigments possess many biological properties such as antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticancer activity. This review outlines different types of pigments. It lists some bacterial and fungal pigments and current bacterial and fungal pigment status and challenges. It also focuses on possible fungal and bacterial pigment applications.

Rapid growth of genome data provides opportunities for updating microbial evolutionary relationships, but this is challenged by the discordant evolution of individual genes. Here we build a reference phylogeny of 10,575 evenly-sampled bacterial and archaeal genomes, based on a comprehensive set of 381 markers, using multiple strategies. Our trees indicate remarkably closer evolutionary proximity between Archaea and Bacteria than previous estimates that were limited to fewer “core” genes, such as the ribosomal proteins. The robustness of the results was tested with respect to several variables, including taxon and site sampling, amino acid substitution heterogeneity and saturation, non-vertical evolution, and the impact of exclusion of candidate phyla radiation (CPR) taxa. Our results provide an updated view of domain-level relationships.