Stappia aquimarina sp. nov., isolated from seawater.

A light-yellow pigmented bacterial strain designated SPIO-19(T) was isolated from seawater in Taiwan and was characterized using the polyphasic taxonomy approach. Strain SPIO-19(T) was Gram-negative, obligately aerobic, rod-shaped, motile by means of one polar flagellum and non-spore forming. Growth occurred at 15-42°C (optimum, 30-40°C), at pH 5.0-9.0 (optimum, pH 8.0) and with 0.5-9.0% NaCl (optimum, 1.0-5.0%). Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain SPIO-19(T) belonged to the genus Stappia and its closest neighbours were Stappia indica B106(T) and Stappia stellulata IAM 12621(T) with sequence similarities of 98.0% and 97.9%, respectively. Strain SPIO-19(T) contained C(18:1)ω7c as predominant fatty acid. The major isoprenoid quinone was Q-10 and the DNA G+C content was 64.5 mol%. The polar lipid profile consisted of a mixture of phosphatidylglycerol (PG), diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine (PMME), phosphatidylcholine (PC), an uncharacterized aminolipid (AL) and an uncharacterized phospholipid (PL). The level of DNA-DNA relatedness of strain SPIO-19(T) to Stappia indica B106(T) and to Stappia stellulata IAM 12621(T) was 22.6 ± 2.8 % and 38.9 ± 3.8 %, respectively. On the basis of the genotypic and phenotypic data, strain SPIO-19(T) represents a new species in the genus Stappia, for which the name Stappia aquimarina sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SPIO-19(T) (=BCRC 80170(T) =LMG 25532(T)).