Sulfitobacter aestuariivivens sp. Nov., isolated from a tidal flat

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-flagellated, coccoid, ovoid or rod-shaped bacterial strain, TSTF-M16^T, was isolated from a tidal flat on the Yellow Sea, Republic of Korea. The neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain TSTF-M16^T fell within a clade comprising the type strains of Sulfitobacter species. Strain TSTF-M16^T exhibited 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of 98.5 and 98.1% to the type strains of Sulfitobacter mediterraneus and Sulfitobacter sabulilitoris, respectively, and 96.2–97.8% to the type strains of the other Sulfitobacter species. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA–DNA hybridization values between the genomic sequences of strain TSTF-M16^T and the type strains of 16 Sulfitobacter species were 70.6–74.2 and 17.9–19.0%, respectively. The DNA G+C content of strain TSTF-M16^T from genomic sequence data was 59.26mol%. Strain TSTF-M16^T contained Q-10 as the predominant ubiquinone and C_18:1 ω7c as the major fatty acid. The major polar lipids of strain TSTF-M16^T were phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, one unidentified aminolipid and one unidentified lipid. Distinguished phenotypic properties, together with the phylogenetic and genetic distinctiveness, revealed that strain TSTF-M16^T is separated from recognized Sulfitobacter species. On the basis of the data presented here, strain TSTF-M16^T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Sulfitobacter, for which the name Sulfitobacter aestuariivivens sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is TSTF-M16^T (=KACC 21645^T=NBRC 114501^T).