Recent advance on the genus Lentzea

Abstract:

The genus Lentzea, established by Yassin et al in 1995, is a typical group of filamentous rare actinomycetes. This genus currently contains 23 valid species, and its typical taxonomic characteristics includes: meso-diaminopimelic acid in the cell wall; MK-9(H₄) as the dominant menaquinone; the principal phosphate lipids include phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphotidylinositol and phosphatidylglycerol; the G+C content of genomic DNA is 68.6 mol%–79.6 mol%. Metabolites from strains of the genus Lentzea have significant diversity of biological activities, including human immunodeficiency virus type 1 integrase inhibitory activity, anti-tumor activity, anti-tuberculosis activity and so on, gradually showing the potential application value in biopharmaceutical research. Our research group isolated several strains of the genus Lentzea during the study on actinobacterial biodiversity of limestone crust in Guizhou province, and Lentzea xinjiangensis DHS C013^T as well as Lentzea pudingi DHS C021^T were proposed as novel species of the genus using the polyphasic taxonomy methods. On the basis of our study, the relevant literatures and the latest research findings, this paper reviews the establishment and taxonomic characteristics of the genus Lentzea, ecological diversity, functional genome and application of natural active metabolites.