Thalassotalea atypica sp. nov., isolated from seawater, and emended description of Thalassotalea eurytherma.

A novel Gram-stain-negative, straight or slightly curved rod-shaped, non-spore-forming, non-flagellated, strictly aerobic strain, designated RZG4-3-1, was isolated from coastal seawater of Rizhao, China (119.625° E 35.517° N). The organism grew optimally at 24-28 °C, at pH 7.0 and in the presence of 2.0 % (w/v) NaCl. The strain required seawater or artificial seawater for growth, and NaCl alone did not support growth. Strain RZG4-3-1 contained ubiquinone 8 (Q-8) as the major respiratory quinone and contained C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c and C16 : 0 as the dominant fatty acids. The polar lipids of strain RZG4-3-1 were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and one unidentified aminophospholipid. The DNA G+C content of strain RZG4-3-1 was 40.1 mol%. Strain RZG4-3-1 exhibited the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity value (96.0 %) to Thalassotalea eurytherma JCM 18482. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain RZG4-3-1 belonged to the genus Thalassotalea. On the basis of polyphasic analyses, strain RZG4-3-1 represents a novel species of the genus Thalassotalea, for which the name Thalassotalea atypica sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is RZG4-3-1 (=JCM 31894=KCTC 52745=MCCC 1K03276). An emended description of Thalassotalea eurytherma is also provided.