Ruegeria conchae sp. nov., isolated from the ark clam Scapharca broughtonii.

A slightly halophilic, Gram-negative, strictly aerobic, non-motile rod, designated TW15(T), was isolated from an ark clam in South Korea. Growth occurred at 10-37 °C, with 1-5% (w/v) NaCl and at pH 7.0-10.0. Optimal growth occurred at 25-30 °C, with 2% (w/v) NaCl and at pH 8.0. Strain TW15(T) exhibited both oxidase and catalase activities. The major fatty acids of strain TW15(T) were summed feature 8 (consisting of C(18:1)ω7c and/or C(18:1)ω6c) and 11-methyl C(18:1)ω7c. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was ubiquinone-10 (Q-10). The polar lipids of strain TW15(T) comprised phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, an unidentified phospholipid, an unidentified aminolipid and five unidentified lipids. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain TW15(T) was most closely related to Ruegeria lacuscaerulensis DSM 11314(T) (98.0% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity). DNA-DNA relatedness with closely related strains was <52 ± 3%. The DNA G+C content was 55.7 mol%. On the basis of phenotypic, genotypic and phylogenetic data, strain TW15(T) represents a novel species of the genus Ruegeria, for which the name Ruegeria conchae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is TW15(T) ( = KACC 15115(T)  = JCM 17315(T)).