Actinobacterial diversity of a soil sample from Hongjingzi in Xinjiang by using culture-independent method

[Objective] The aim of this study was to investigate the actinobacteria diversity of the saline-alkali soil from Hongjingzi located in XinJiang Province.[Methods] The diversity of actinobacteria in this soil was investigated by using culture-independent method based on phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences.The specific primers for the class Acti-nobacteria were used to amplify the partial 16S rRNA gene,and then clone library for the soil sample was constructed.A total of 246 positive clones chosen randomly from the clone library were digested with Hae III for RFLP analysis.[Results] Among of them,61 different clones selected were sequenced.The analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the clone se-quences went back to 42 OTUs and belonged to subclasses Actinobacteridae,Acidimicrobidae and Rubrobacteridae respectively.The 71.4% of the detected sequences from this soil was less than 97% similarity to the published sequences,which might represent new taxa.Some se-quences,which formed several distinct clades in phylogenetic tree may represent new taxo-nomical groups of actinobacteria.[Conclusion] These results indicate that the soil from Hong-jingzi region be abundant actinobacteria,including large number of unknown actinobacterial taxa,which would be further explored.