Cellulophaga geojensis sp. nov., a member of the family Flavobacteriaceae isolated from marine sand

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-flagellated, non-spore-forming, motile (by gliding) bacterial strain, designated M-M6^T, was isolated from marine sand of Geoje island, Korea. Strain M-M6^T grew optimally at 25 6C, at pH 7.0-8.0 and in the presence of 2% (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain M-M6^T fell within the clade comprising Cellulophaga species, forming a coherent cluster with Cellulophaga lytica ATCC 23178^T and Cellulophaga fucicola NN015860^T, with which it shared 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of 98.1 and 98.2 %, respectively. Sequence similarities between strain M-M6^T and the type strains of other recognized Cellulophaga species were in the range 92.4-93.8 %. Strain MM6^T contained MK-6 as the predominant menaquinone and iso-C_{15: 0}, iso-C_{15: 1} G, iso-C_{17: 0} 3- OH, and C_{16: 1}v7c and/or iso-C_{15: 0} 2-OH as the major fatty acids. The major polar lipids detected in strain M-M6^T and the type strains of C. lytica and C. fucicola were two unidentified lipids, one unidentified aminolipid and one unidentified aminophospholipid. The DNA G+C content of strain M-M6^T was 35.4 mol%. Levels of DNA-DNA relatedness between strain M-M6^T and C. lytica JCM 8516^T and C. fucicola JCM 21778^T were 33 and 35 %, respectively. Differential phenotypic properties and phylogenetic and genetic distinctiveness distinguished strain M-M6^T from all recognized Cellulophaga species. On the basis of the data presented, strain M-M6^T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Cellulophaga, for which the name Cellulophaga geojensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is M-M6^T (5KCTC 23498^T5CCUG 60801^T).