Maribaculum marinum gen. nov., sp nov., isolated from deep seawater

A taxonomic study was carried out on strain P38(T), which was isolated from an enriched polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-degrading consortium from a deep seawater sample collected from the Indian Ocean. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain P38(T) formed a distinct evolutionary lineage within the family Hyphomonadaceae. Strain P38(T) was most closely related to members of the genera Hyphomonas (92.3-93.5% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), Hirschia (88.8%), Maricaulis (88.3-88.6%), Hellea (87.5%), Oceanicaulis (87.4%) and Robiginitomaculum (86.7%) of the family Hyphomonadaceae. The DNA G+C content of strain P38(T) was 61.0 mol% and the predominant cellular fatty acids were C-16:0 (20%), C-17:0 (5.7%), C-18:1 omega 7c (37.7%), C-18:0 (6.3%) and C-18:1 omega 7c 11-methyl (7.1%). Strain P38(T) was distinguishable from members of phylogenetically related genera by differences in several phenotypic properties. On the basis of the phenotypic and phylogenetic data, strain P38(T) represents a novel species of a new genus, for which the name Maribaculum marinum gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Maribaculum marinum is P38(T) (=CCTCC AB 208227(T) = LMG 24711(T) = MCCC 1A01086(T)).