Winogradskyella haliclonae sp. nov., isolated from a marine sponge of the genus Haliclona.

A yellow-pigmented, Gram-stain-negative, motile and rod-shaped bacterium, strain M1A16, was isolated from the internal tissue of a sponge of the genus Haliclona, which was long-term cultured in the CEMarin aquaria system at Justus Liebig University of Giessen. The strain grew well at 20-32 °C (optimum 25 °C), in the presence of 0-6 % NaCl (optimum 3 %), and at pH 5.5-9.0 (optimum pH 7.0-8.0). Phylogenetic analysis based on its 16S rRNA gene sequence placed the strain within the monophyletic cluster of the genus Winogradskyella with highest sequence similarity to Winogradskyella jejuensis CP32 (98.3 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity). Sequence similarities to all other type strains were 98.0 % or less. DNA-DNA hybridization of strain M1A16 with W. jejuensis CP32 resulted in hybridization values of 44.1 % (reciprocal 68.1 %). Major cellular fatty acids of strain M1A16 were iso-C15 : 1 G (18.1 %), iso-C15 : 0 (13.7 %), C16 : 1ω7c (12.9 %), iso-C17 : 0 3-OH (10.6 %) and iso-C16 : 0 3-OH (10.2 %). The overall polyamine content was very low with major components being cadaverine, spermidine and sym-homospermidine. The major quinone was menaquinone MK-6. The polar lipid profile contained predominantly phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified aminolipids and two unidentified lipids devoid of a detectable functional group. The genomic DNA G+C content was 32.7 mol%. Based on the phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and phenotypic analyses, strain M1A16 represents a novel species of the genus Winogradskyella, for which the name Winogradskyella haliclonae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is M1A16 (=DSM 103138=CCM 8681=LMG 29588=CIP 111091).