Pelagicola litorisediminis sp. nov., a novel alphaproteobacterium isolated from tidal flat sediment.

A Gram-negative, aerobic, non-motile and rod-shaped or ovoid bacterial strain, designated D1-W8(T), was isolated from a tidal flat on the South Sea in South Korea. Strain D1-W8(T) was found to grow optimally at 25 °C, at pH 7.0-8.0 and in the presence of 2.0-3.0 % (w/v) NaCl. Neighbour-joining, maximum-likelihood and maximum-parsimony phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain D1-W8(T) clustered with the type strain of Pelagicola litoralis showing 97.1 % sequence identity. 16S rRNA gene sequences of the type strains of other species exhibited lower similarity values. Strain D1-W8(T) was determined to contain Q-10 as the predominant ubiquinone and C18:1 ω7c as the predominant fatty acid. The major polar lipids of strain D1-W8(T) were identified as phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified aminolipid and one unidentified lipid. The DNA G+C content of strain D1-W8(T) was determined to be 57.9 mol% and its DNA-DNA relatedness value with the type strain of P. litoralis was 17 %. The differential phenotypic properties, together with the phylogenetic and genetic distinctiveness, revealed that strain D1-W8(T) is separate from P. litoralis. On the basis of the data presented, strain D1-W8(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Pelagicola, for which the name Pelagicola litorisediminis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is D1-W8(T) (= KCTC 32327(T) = CECT 8287(T)).