Spongiibacterium flavum gen. nov., sp. nov., a member of the family Flavobacteriaceae isolated from the marine sponge Halichondria oshoro, and emended descriptions of the genera Croceitalea and Flagellimonas.

A gram-negative, strictly aerobic, non-flagellated, non-gliding, oxidase- and catalase-positive, yellow-pigmented rod, designated A11(T), was isolated from a marine sponge, Halichondria oshoro, collected on the coastline of Jeju Island, Republic of Korea. Phylogenetic analysis based on nearly complete 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain A11(T) was a member of the family Flavobacteriaceae. Its closest relatives were members of the genera Muricauda, Flagellimonas and Croceitalea (94.4-94.8 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity). The only polar lipid detected in strain A11(T) was phosphatidylethanolamine. The dominant fatty acids were iso-C(15 : 0) (30.4 %), iso-C(15 : 1) G (26.7 %), iso-C(17 : 0) 3-OH (12.4 %) and iso-C(15 : 0) 3-OH (7.3 %). The DNA G+C content of strain A11(T) was 41.7 mol% and its major respiratory quinone was MK-6. On the basis of combined data from phenotypic and phylogenetic analyses, strain A11(T) represents a novel genus and species within the family Flavobacteriaceae, for which the name Spongiibacterium flavum gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of the type species is A11(T) ( = KCTC 22665(T) = DSM 22638(T)). Emended descriptions of the genera Croceitalea and Flagellimonas are also given.