Sulfitobacter aestuarii sp. nov., a marine bacterium isolated from a tidal flat of the Yellow Sea.

A novel bacterial strain, designated hydD52, was isolated from a sample of tidal flat sediment of the Yellow Sea in the Republic of Korea. The cells were motile, rod-shaped and Gram-stain-negative. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain hydD52 was a member of the genus Sulfitobacter and most closely related to Sulfitobacter dubius DSM 16472 (98.0 %), Sulfitobacter indolifex HEL-45 (97.8 %) and Sulfitobacter delicatus DSM 28223 (97.6 %). The major fatty acids (>5 %) of hydD52 were C18 : 1ω7c/C18 : 1ω6c, C16 : 0, C18 : 1ω7c 11-methyl and C19 : 0ω8c. The respiratory quinone of strain hydD52 was ubiquinone-10. The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine and an unidentified amino lipid. The G+C content of this strain was 64.0 mol%. The DNA-DNA relatedness values of hydD52 with the type strains of S. dubius, S. indolifex and S. delicatus were 18.8, 13.1 and 15.7 %, respectively. Based on the results of morphological, physiological and chemotaxonomic characterization, DNA-DNA hybridization relatedness, and 16S rRNA genes analysis, we concluded that strain hydD52 represents a novel species, for which the name Sulfitobacter aestuarii sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is hydD52 (=KCTC 32982=TISTR 2562).