Salinimonas lutimaris sp. nov., a polysaccharide-degrading bacterium isolated from a tidal flat

A Gram-negative, non-motile, non-endospore-forming bacterial strain, designated DPSR-4 ^T, was isolated from a tidal flat sediment on the southern coast of Korea. Strain DPSR-4 ^T grew optimally at 25-30°C, at pH 7.0-7.5 and in the presence of 2% (w/v) NaCl. A Neighbour-Joining phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain DPSR-4 ^T clustered with Salinimonas chungwhensis BH030046 ^T by a high bootstrap resampling value of 99.7%. Strain DPSR-4 ^T exhibited 96.2% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to that of S. chungwhensis BH030046 ^T and 93.7-96.6% sequence similarity to the sequences of type strains of Alteromonas species. Strain DPSR-4 ^T contained Q-8 as the predominant ubiquinone and iso-C _15:0 2-OH and/or C _16:1 ω7c, C _16:0 and C _18:1 ω7c as the major fatty acids. The major polar lipids detected in strain DPSR-4 ^T and S. chungwhensis KCTC 12239 ^T were phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and an unidentified phospholipid. The DNA G+C content was 53.4 mol%. Differential phenotypic properties and phylogenetic distinctiveness of strain DPSR-4 ^T demonstrated that this strain is distinguishable from the sole recognized species of the genus Salinimonas, S. chungwhensis. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data, strain DPSR-4 ^T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Salinimonas, for which the name Salinimonas lutimaris sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is DPSR-4 ^T (KCTC 23464 ^T, CCUG 60743 ^T).