Deinococcus pantiae sp. nov., a UV-resistant bacterium isolated from a lake in Schirmacher Oasis, AntarcticaNamrataJiyaauthorWormirinKhudaiauthorBhavukGuptaauthorDev KantSindhuauthorVibhawShrivastavaauthorSoniaThiteauthorPrachiKarodiauthorVenkata RamanaVemuluriauthorAvinashSharmaauthorA novel UV-resistant, red-pigmented, Gram-stain-positive, aerobic, non-motile, coccoid bacterial strain, designated SM5_A1T, was isolated from lake sediment collected from Schirmacher Oasis, Queen Maud Land, Antarctica. The phylogenetic analysis, based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence, showed that the strain SM5_A1T was closely related to Deinococcus saxicola DSM 15974T (98.39%), Deinococcus frigens DSM 12807T (97.69%) and Deinococcus marmoris DSM 12784T (97.06%). The overall genome-related indices revealed D. marmoris DSM 12784T as the phylogenetically nearest relative with an average nucleotide identity of 89.69%, an average amino acid identity of 92.14% and a digital DNA-DNA hybridization of 38.3%. The DNA G+C content of the isolate was 64.05 mol%, while the predominant respiratory quinone was menaquinone 8 (MK-8). The major cellular fatty acids were summed feature 3 (C16:1 omega 7c/C16:1 omega 6c), C15:1 omega 6c, C16:0, summed feature 9 (C17:1 iso omega 9c) and C15:0 iso. The prominently detected polar lipids were aminolipids, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphoglycolipids and phosphatidylglyceroylalkylamine. Based on the phenotypic, phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic data, the strain SM5_A1T represents a novel species in the genus Deinococcus for which the name Deinococcus pantiae is proposed. The type strain is SM5_A1T (MCC 5347T=JCM 36669T=KCTC 43670T).QR Microbiology2026-02-18MICROBIOLOGY SOCArticle