Discovery of a new species of actinomycete from a medicinal plant in Mongolia

Recently, a new species of a rare actinomycete, Actinocatenispora comari NUM- 2625^T was discovered by Professor Yojiro Anzai and his research group at the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toho University, in collaboration with the National University of Mongolia and Biological Resource Center, National Institute of Technology and Evaluation (NITE), Japan. This strain was isolated from a native Mongolian medicinal plant, Comarum salesowianum, and is the first strain of the genus Actinocatenispora to be isolated from a plant. This newly discovered species is expected to be a new resource for drug discovery. This achievement was published in the journal “International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology” on July 9, 2021.

Recently, a new species of a rare actinomycete, Actinocatenispora comari NUM- 2625 was discovered by Professor Yojiro Anzai and his research group at the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toho University, in collaboration with the National University of Mongolia and Biological Resource Center, National Institute of Technology and Evaluation (NITE), Japan. This strain was isolated from a native Mongolian medicinal plant, Comarum salesowianum, and is the first strain of the genus Actinocatenispora to be isolated from a plant. This newly discovered species is expected to be a new resource for drug discovery. This achievement was published in the journal “International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology” on July 9, 2021.

Summary
Actinomycetes, which are widely distributed in nature, particularly in soil and plants, are producers of useful compounds, such as antibiotics. The research group led by Professor Yojiro Anzai of the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toho University, has been working on the development of a new strain of actinomycetes. In the isolation experiment of actinomycetes endogenous to medicinal plants native to Mongolia, NUM-2625, which forms yellow colonies, was isolated from Comarum salesowianum. Subsequently, Dr. Tomohiko Tamura and his colleagues at Biological Resource Center, NITE, compared the genome sequences of NUM-2625 and existing related species, and clarified that NUM-2625 is a new species of the rare actinomycete genus Actinocatenispora. Although three species of the genus Actinocatenispora have been reported to date, they were all isolated from soil, and NUM-2625 is the first species of the genus Actinocatenispora isolated from plants. There have been few reports of new species of actinomycetes from Mongolia, and the results of this research are expected to lead to research on biodiversity and the search for new useful compounds.

Key points

The research group discovered a new species of rare actinomycete, Actinocatenispora comari NUM-2625^T, from the native Mongolian medicinal plant Comarum salesowianum.
Actinocatenispora comari NUM-2625^T is the first actinomycete species belonging to the genus Actinocatenispora to be isolated from a plant.
The discovery of a new species of actinomycetes from Mongolia, where there have been limited reports of new species, is expected to lead to research on biodiversity and the search for new useful compounds.

Authors:
Yojiro Anzai (Professor, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toho University)
Fumio Kato (Professor Emeritus, Toho University)
Atsushi Fukumoto (Senior Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toho University)
Yohei Iizaka (Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toho University)
Javzan Batkhuu (National University of Mongolia)
Bekh-Ochir Davaapurev (National University of Mongolia)
Natsagdorj Oyunbileg (National University of Mongolia)
Tomohiko Tamura (Biological Resource Center, National Institute of Technology and Evaluation)
Moriyuki Hamada (Biological Resource Center, National Institute of Technology and Evaluation)
Baljinova Tsetseg (Institute of Biology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences)

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