Lewinella litorea sp. Nov., isolated from marine sand

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile and ovoid-or rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated HSMS-39^T, was isolated from marine sand sampled at Hongsung, Republic of Korea. Strain HSMS-39^T grew optimally at 30 °C and in the presence of 1.0–2.0% (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain HSMS-39^T fell within the clade comprising the type strains of Lewinella species, clustering with the type strain of Lewinella marina showing 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 99.1%. It exhibited 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of less than 95.5% to the type strains of the other Lewinella species. Strain HSMS-39^T contained MK-7 as the predominant menaquinone and iso-C_17:1 ω9c, iso-C_15:0 and summed feature 3 (C_16:1 ω7c and/or C_16:1 ω6c) as the major fatty acids. The major polar lipids of strain HSMS-39^T were phosphatidylethanolamine and one unidentified phospholipid. The DNA G+C content of strain HSMS-39^T was 60.0mol%. The mean DNA–DNA relatedness value between strain HSMS-39^T and the type strain of L. marina was 15%. The average nucleotide identity value between strain HSMS-39^Tand the type strain of L. marina was 81.87%. The phylogenetic and genetic data and differential phenotypic properties indicated that strain HSMS-39^T is separated from other recognized species of the genus Lewinella. On the basis of the polyphasic data, strain HSMS-39^T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Lewinella, for which the name Lewinella litorea sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is HSMS-39^T (=KACC 19866^T=NBRC 113585^T).