Erythrobacter marinus sp nov., isolated from seawater

A Gram-negative, non-motile, ovoid to rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain HWDM-33(T), was isolated from seawater of the Yellow Sea, Korea, and was subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. Strain HWDM-33(T) grew optimally at pH 7-8, at 25 degrees C and in the presence of 2-3% (w/v) NaCl. Neighbour-joining, maximum-likelihood and maximum-parsimony phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain HWDM-33(T) clustered with Erythrobacter gangjinensis K7-2(T), with which it shared 96.9% sequence similarity. Strain HWDM-33(T) exhibited 94.2-95.8% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to the type strains of other recognized species of the genus Erythrobacter. Strain HWDM-33(T) contained Q-10 as the predominant ubiquinone and C-18 (:) (1)omega 7c, C-17 (:) (1)omega 6c, and C-16 (:) (1)omega 7c and/or iso-C-15 (:) (0) 2-OH as the major fatty acids. The major polar lipids were sphingoglycolipid, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidyl-ethanolamine and an unidentified lipid. The DNA G + C content of strain HWDM-33(T) was 66.1 mol%. Differential phenotypic properties and phylogenetic distinctiveness demonstrated that strain HWDM-33(T) was separate from E. gangjinensis and other recognized species of the genus Erythrobacter. On the basis of the data presented here, strain HWDM-33(T) represents a novel species of the genus Erythrobacter, for which the name Erythrobacter marinus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is HWDM-33(T) (=KCTC 23554(T) =CCUG 60528(T)).