Erythrobacter luteolus sp. nov., isolated from a tidal flat of the Yellow Sea in Korea

A Gram-negative, non-spore-forming, yellow-pigmented, slightly halophilic bacterial strain, SW-109^T, was isolated from a tidal flat of the Yellow Sea in Korea, and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. This isolate did not produce bacteriochlorophyll a and contained ubiquinone-10 as the predominant respiratory lipoquinone and C_18:1ω7c as the major fatty acid. The DNA G+C content was 60.3 mol%. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain SW-109^T is phylogenetically affiliated to the genus Erythrobacter of the family Sphingomonadaceae. Strain SW-109^T exhibited levels of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to the type strains of Erythrobacter species of 94.0-96.3 %, making it possible to categorize strain SW-109^T as a species that is separate from previously recognized Erythrobacter species. On the basis of its phenotypic properties and phylogenetic distinctiveness, SW-109^T (=KCTC 12311^T=JCM 12599^T) was classified as the type strain of a novel Erythrobacter species, for which the name Erythrobacter luteolus sp. nov. is proposed.