Altererythrobacter aquimixticola sp. nov., isolated from sediment sampled at the junction between the ocean and a freshwater spring.

ABSTRACT

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile and coccoid-, ovoid- or rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated SSKS-13T, was isolated from sediment sampled at the junction between the ocean and a freshwater spring at Jeju island, Republic of Korea. Strain SSKS-13T grew optimally at 37 °C and in the presence of 2.0 % (w/v) NaCl. A neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain SSKS-13T fell within the clade comprising the type strains of Altererythrobacter species, clustering with the type strains of Altererythrobacter lauratis, Altererythrobacter palmitatis and Altererythrobacter buctensis having 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of 97.2-97.6 %. Strain SSKS-13T exhibited 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of less than 97.0 % to the type strains of the other recognized species. Strain SSKS-13T contained Q-10 as the predominant ubiquinone and C18  1 ω7c as the major fatty acid. The major polar lipids detected in strain SSKS-13T were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and sphingoglycolipid. The DNA G+C content of strain SSKS-13T was 64.6 mol%. The mean DNA-DNA relatedness values of strain SSKS-13T with the type strains of A. lauratis, A. palmitatis and A. buctensis were 11.7-25.3 %. Differential phenotypic properties, together with the phylogenetic and genetic data, proved that strain SSKS-13T is distinct from recognized Altererythrobacter species. On the basis of the data presented here, strain SSKS-13T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Altererythrobacter, for which the name Altererythrobacter aquimixticola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SSKS-13T (=KACC 19863T=KCTC 62900T=NBRC 113545T).