Alteromonas ponticola Sp. Nov., a gammaproteobacterium isolated from seawater

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-spore-forming, non-motile and ovoid or rod-shaped bacterial strain, MYP5^T, was isolated from seawater in Jeju island of South Korea. MYP5^T grew optimally at 30–35 °C and in the presence of 2.0 % (w/v) NaCl. A neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that MYP5^T fell within the clade enclosed by the type strains of species of the genus Alteromonas, clustering with the type strains of Alteromonas confluentis and Alteromonas halophila. MYP5^T exhibited the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity value (98.0 %) to the type strain of A. confluentis and similarities of 95.1–97.9 % to the type strains of the other species of the genus Alteromonas. ANI and dDDH values of genomic sequences between MYP5^T and the type strains of 22 species of the genus Alteromonas were 66.8–70.5 % and 18.6–27.5 %, respectively. The DNA G+C content of MYP5^T, determined from the genome sequence, was 46.1 %. MYP5^T contained Q-8 as the predominant ubiquinone and C_{18: 1} ω7c, summed feature 3 (C_{16: 1} ω7c and/or C_{16: 1} ω6c), C_{16: 0} and 10-methyl C_{17: 0} as the major fatty acids. The major polar lipids of MYP5^T were phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol. Distinguishing phenotypic properties, along with the phylogenetic and genetic distinctiveness, revealed that MYP5^T is separated from species of the genus Alteromonas. On the basis of the data presented, MYP5^T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Alteromonas, for which the name Alteromonas ponticola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is MYP5^T (=KCTC 82144^T=NBRC 114354^T).