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Streptomyces aurantiaciflavus sp. nov., a novel actinomycete isolated from rhizosphere soil with antifungal activity and plant growth-promoting ability

The Journal of Antibiotics volume 79, pages 238–247 (2026)Cite this article

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Abstract

A novel actinobacterial strain NEAU-NA10T showing antifungal activity and plant growth-promoting ability was isolated from the rhizosphere soil of strawberry seedlings collected from Ya’an City, Sichuan Province, China (28°51′ N, 101°56′ E). A polyphasic taxonomic study was used to establish the status of strain NEAU-NA10T. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that strain NEAU-NA10T belongs to the genus Streptomyces and shares the highest similarity (99.31%) with Streptomyces canarius CGMCC 4.1581T. Whole-genome comparisons with its reference strains demonstrated that the average nucleotide identity (ANIm) and digital DNA–DNA hybridization (dDDH) values ranged from 86.74 to 87.75% and 27.0 to 30.1%, respectively. The phospholipid profile contained diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, and phosphatidylinositol. The diagnostic sugars in cell hydrolysates were determined to be ribose, and the cell wall contained LL-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. The predominant menaquinones were MK-9(H4), MK-9(H6) and MK-9(H8). The predominant cellular fatty acids (>10%) were C16:0, C17:0, C18:0, and anteiso-C18:0. Meanwhile, genomic analysis revealed a genome size of 9,459,621 bp and a DNA G + C content of 71.81%, and indicated that strain NEAU-NA10T has the potential to degrade cellulose and produce amylase. Based on phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, and genotypic studies, strain NEAU-NA10T is considered to be a novel species of the genus Streptomyces, for which the name Streptomyces aurantiaciflavus sp. nov. is proposed, with NEAU-NA10T (=MCCC 1K08700T = JCM 36416T) as the type strain.

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Data availability

The type strain NEAU-NA10T (=MCCC 1K08700T = JCM 36416T) was isolated from rhizosphere soil collected from Ya’an City, Sichuan Province, China. The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain NEAU-NA10T is PV491250. The Whole Genome Shotgun project has been deposited at DDBJ/ENA/GenBank under the accession JBNCAQ000000000. The version described in this paper is version JBNCAQ000000000.1.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Prof. Aharon Oren for his valuable advice on the naming of the species.

Funding

This work was supported in part by grants from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2023YFD1700700) and the State Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 32030090).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology of Heilongjiang Province, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, China

    Jiaxin Jin, Xue Zhao, Muxi Zhang, Jiayi Xu, Xingbo Wang, Ran Zhang, Yan Xu, Zhen Song, Jia Song & Wensheng Xiang

  2. State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

    Wensheng Xiang

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  1. Jiaxin Jin
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  2. Xue Zhao
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Contributions

Jiaxin Jin performed the laboratory experiments, analyzed the data, and drafted the manuscript. Xue Zhao contributed to the biochemical characterization. Ran Zhang contributed to isolate the novel strain. Jiayi Xu contributed to genome features and mining analysis. Muxi Zhang contributed to the polyphasic taxonomy. Xingbo Wang contributed to the morphological analyses. Yan Xu and Zhen Song contributed to the chemotaxonomic study. Jia Song participated in the discussions of each section of the experiments. Jia Song and Wensheng Xiang designed the experiments and revised the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jia Song or Wensheng Xiang.

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Jin, J., Zhao, X., Zhang, M. et al. Streptomyces aurantiaciflavus sp. nov., a novel actinomycete isolated from rhizosphere soil with antifungal activity and plant growth-promoting ability. J Antibiot 79, 238–247 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41429-026-00897-0

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