Mucilaginibacter sabulilitoris sp. nov., isolated from marine sand in a firth

A Gram-stain-negative, non-spore-forming, strictly aerobic, non-flagellated, non-gliding, rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated SMS-12^T, was isolated from marine sand in a firth on the western coast of South Korea. Strain SMS-12^T grew optimally at 25 °C, at pH 7.0-7.5 and in the absence of NaCl. Phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain SMS-12^T fell within the clade comprising species of the genus Mucilaginibacter, forming a coherent cluster with the type strain of Mucilaginibacter lappiensis, with which it exhibited the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity value of 97.5 %. Levels of sequence similarity to the type strains of the other species of the genus Mucilaginibacter and the other species used in the phylogenetic analysis were 93.3-96.4 % and <91.5 %, respectively. Strain SMS-12^T contained MK-7 as the predominant menaquinone, and summed feature 3 (C_{16: 1}ω7c and/or iso-C_{15: 0} 2-OH), iso-C_{15: 0} and iso-C_{17: 0} 3-OH as the major fatty acids. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine and one unidentified aminophospholipid; sphingolipids were present. The DNA G+C content was 41.8 mol% and the mean DNA-DNA relatedness with M. lappiensis KACC 14978^T was 13 %. Differential phenotypic properties, together with phylogenetic and genetic distinctiveness, revealed that strain SMS-12^T is separate from other species of the genus Mucilaginibacter. On the basis of the data presented, strain SMS-12^T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Mucilaginibacter, for which the name Mucilaginibacter sabulilitoris sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SMS-12^T (= KCTC 32111^T = CCUG 62214^T).