Gramella echinicola gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel halophilic bacterium of the family Flavobacteriaceae isolated from the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus intermedius.

A novel marine bacterium, strain KMM 6050T, was isolated from the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus intermedius, which inhabits the Sea of Japan. The strain studied was strictly aerobic, heterotrophic, yellow-orange-pigmented, motile by gliding, Gram-negative and oxidase-, catalase-, beta-galactosidase- and alkaline phosphatase-positive. The results of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain KMM 6050T occupies a distinct lineage within the family Flavobacteriaceae and is most closely related to the species Mesonia algae and Salegentibacter salegens (sequence similarity of 92.5-92.6 %). The DNA G+C content of KMM 6050T was 39.6 mol%. The major respiratory quinone was MK-6. The predominant fatty acids were i15 : 0, a15 : 0, 15 : 0, i16 : 1, i16 : 0, i16 : 0 3-OH and i17 : 0 3-OH. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, genotypic and phylogenetic characteristics, the novel bacterium has been assigned to the genus Gramella gen. nov., as Gramella echinicola sp. nov. The type strain is KMM 6050T (=KCTC 12278T=NBRC 100593T=LMG 22585T).