Novosphingobium marinum sp. nov., isolated from seawater.

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, short rod-shaped bacterium, strain LA53(T), was isolated from a deep-sea water sample collected from the eastern Pacific Ocean. Strain LA53(T) grew in the presence of 0-7.0 % (w/v) NaCl and at 15-37 °C; optimum growth was observed with 1.0-2.0 % (w/v) NaCl and at 35 °C. Chemotaxonomic analysis showed ubiquinone-10 as the predominant respiratory quinone, C18 : 1ω7c and summed feature 3 (iso-C15 : 0 2-OH and/or C16 : 1ω7c) as major fatty acids, and diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and sphingoglycolipid as major polar lipids. The genomic DNA G+C content was 57.7 mol%. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that strain LA53(T) belongs to the genus Novosphingobium. 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities between strain LA53(T) and the type strains of species of the genus Novosphingobium with validly published names ranged from 93.1 to 96.3 %. In addition, strain LA53(T) could be differentiated from Novosphingobium pentaromativorans DSM 17173(T) and Novosphingobium indicum DSM 23608(T) as well as the type strain of the type species of the genus, Novosphingobium capsulatum DSM 30196(T), by some phenotypic characteristics, including hydrolysis of substrates, utilization of carbon sources and susceptibility to antibiotics. On the basis of phenotypic and genotypic data, strain LA53(T) represents a novel species within the genus Novosphingobium, for which the name Novosphingobium marinum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LA53(T) ( = CGMCC 1.12918(T) = JCM 30307(T)).