Polaribacter haliotis sp. nov., isolated from the gut of abalone haliotis discus hannai

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile and coccoid, ovoid or rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated RA4-7^T, was isolated from the gut of an abalone (Haliotis discus hannai) collected from the sea around Jeju island, South Korea, and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. RA4-7^T grew optimally at 25°C, at pH 7.0–7.5 and in the presence of 2.0–3.0% (w/v) NaCl. The phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that RA4-7^T represented a member of the genus Polaribacter. RA4-7^T exhibited 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values of 97.64 and 97.23% to Polaribacter atrinae WP25^T and Polaribacter dokdonensis DSW-5^T, respectively, and of 93.83–96.99% to the type strains of the other species of the genus Polaribacter. RA4-7^T contained MK-6 as the predominant menaquinone and summed feature 3 (C_{16: 1}w7c and/or C_{16: 1}w6c), iso-C_{15: 0} 3-OH and iso-C_{15: 0}as the major fatty acids. The major polar lipids detected in RA4-7^T were phosphatidylethanolamine and one unidentified lipid. The DNA G+C content of RA4-7^T was 30.5 mol% and its DNA–DNA relatedness values with the type strains of P. atrinae and P. dokdonensis were 16 and 11%, respectively. Differential phenotypic properties, in combination with its phylogenetic and genetic distinctiveness, revealed that RA4-7^T is separated from species of the genus Polaribacter with validly published names. On the basis of the data presented, RA4-7^T represented a novel species of the genus Polaribacter, for which the name Polaribacterhaliotis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is RA4- 7^T (=KCTC 52418^T=NBRC 112383^T).