Litoreibacter halocynthiae sp. nov., isolated from the sea squirt Halocynthia roretzi

A Gram-stain-negative, non-motile and coccoid, ovoid or rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated P-MA1-7^T, was isolated from a sea squirt (Halocynthia roretzi) collected from the South Sea, Korea. Strain P-MA1-7^T grew optimally at 25 °C, at pH 7.0-8.0 and in the presence of 2-3% (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain P- MA1-7^T fell within the cluster comprising the type strains of four species of the genus Litoreibacter, exhibiting 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values of 97.0-98.5% to these four type strains and less than 95.9 % sequence similarity to the strains of the other species examined. Strain P-MA1-7^T contained Q-10 as the predominant ubiquinone and C_18:1ω7c as the predominant fatty acid. The major polar lipids of strain P-MA1-7^T were phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified aminolipid and one unidentified lipid. The DNA G + C content of strain P-MA1-7^T was 58.3 mol% and DNA-DNA relatedness values of strain P-MA1-7^T with the type strains of the four species of the genus Litoreibacter were in the range of 8-21 %. The differential phenotypic properties, together with the phylogenetic and genetic distinctiveness, revealed that strain P-MA1-7^T was separate from other species of the genus Litoreibacter. On the basis of these data, strain P-MA1-7^T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Litoreibacter, for which the name Litoreibacter halocynthiae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is P-MA1-7^T (=KCTC 32213^T=CCUG 63416^T).