Description of Sulfitobacter donghicola sp. nov., isolated from seawater of the East Sea in Korea, transfer of Staleya guttiformis Labrenz et al. 2000 to the genus Sulfitobacter as Sulfitobacter guttiformis comb. nov. and emended description of the genus Sulfitobacter.

A Gram-negative, non-motile and rod-, oval- or coccoid-shaped bacterial strain, DSW-25(T), which is phylogenetically closely related to the genera Staleya and Sulfitobacter, was isolated from seawater of the East Sea, Korea, and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. Strain DSW-25(T) grew optimally at pH 7.0-8.0 and at 25 degrees C. It contained Q-10 as the predominant ubiquinone and C(18 : 1) omega 7c as the major fatty acid. Major polar lipids were phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and an unidentified phospholipid. The DNA G+C content was 56.9 mol%. Strain DSW-25(T) exhibited 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values of 98.4 % to the type strain of Staleya guttiformis and of 96.6-97.6 % to Sulfitobacter species. There were no distinct phenotypic, particularly chemotaxonomic, properties to differentiate Staleya guttiformis and strain DSW-25(T) from the genus Sulfitobacter. DNA-DNA relatedness data and differential phenotypic properties, together with the phylogenetic distinctiveness, demonstrated that strain DSW-25(T) differs from recognized Sulfitobacter species and Staleya guttiformis. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, phylogenetic and genetic data, strain DSW-25(T) was classified in the genus Sulfitobacter as a member of a novel species, for which the name Sulfitobacter donghicola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is strain DSW-25(T) (=KCTC 12864(T) =JCM 14565(T)). It is also proposed that Staleya guttiformis be transferred to the genus Sulfitobacter as Sulfitobacter guttiformis comb. nov.