Gracilimonas sediminicola sp. nov., a moderately halotolerant bacterium isolated from seaweed sediment collected in the East Sea, Republic of Korea

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped bacterium, designated as strain CAU 1638^T, was isolated from seaweed sediment collected in the Republic of Korea. The cells of strain CAU 1638^T grew at 25–37 °C (optimum, 30 °C), at pH 6.0–7.0 (optimum, pH 6.5) and in the presence of 0–10% NaCl (optimum, 2 %). The cells were positive for catalase and oxidase and did not hydrolyse starch and casein. Strain CAU 1638^T was most closely related to Gracilimonas amylolytica KCTC 52885^T (97.7 %), followed by Gracilimonas halophila KCTC 52042^T (97.4 %), Gracilimonas rosea KCCM 90206^T (97.2 %), Gracili-monas tropica KCCM 90063^T and Gracilimonas mengyeensis DSM 21985^T (97.1 %), as revealed by 16S rRNA gene sequenc-ing. MK-7 was the major isoprenoid quinone, and iso-C_{15: 0} and C_{15: 1} ω6c were the major fatty acids. The polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified lipids, two unidentified glycolipids and three unidentified phospholipids. The G+C content of the genome was 44.2 mol%. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA–DNA hybridization values between strain CAU 1638^T and the reference strains were 73.1–73.9 % and 18.9–21.5 %, respectively. Based on its phylogenetic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic features, strain CAU 1638^T represents a novel species of the genus Gracilimonas, for which the name Gracilimonas sediminicola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CAU 1638^T (=KCTC 82454^T =MCCC 1K06087^T ).