Photobacterium lutimaris sp. nov., isolated from a tidal flat sediment in Korea

A Gram-negative, motile, pale-yellow-pigmented, oval-shaped bacterial strain, DF-42^T, was isolated from a tidal flat sediment in Korea. Strain DF-42^T grew optimally at 25-30 °C and in the presence of 2-3% (w/v) NaCl. It contained O-8 as the predominant ubiquinone and C_16:0, C_{18: 1}ω7c and summed feature 3 (C₁₆:1ω7c and/or iso-C_15:0 2-OH) as the major fatty acids. The DNA G + C content was 48.3 mol%. Phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain DF-42_T falls within the evolutionary radiation enclosed by the genus Photobacterium. Strain DF-42^T exhibited 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values of 93.8-97.9% to the type strains of Photobacterium species with validly published names. DNA-DNA relatedness data and differential phenotypic properties made it possible to categorize strain DF-42^T as representing a species that is separate from previously described Photobacterium species. The name Photobacterium lutimaris sp. nov. is proposed, with strain DF-42^T (= KCTC 12723^T =JCM 13586^T) as the type strain.