Oceanisphaera psychrotolerans sp. nov., isolated from coastal sediment samples.

A novel aerobic, Gram-staining-negative bacterium, designated strain LAM-WHM-ZC(T), was isolated from coastal sediment samples from the Bohai Sea, near Yantai, China. Cells of LAM-WHM-ZC(T) were non-motile, short-rod- or coccoid-shaped. The temperature and pH ranges for growth were 4-40 °C (optimum: 20-33 °C) and pH 5-9 (optimum: pH 7.5). The strain did not require NaCl for growth but tolerated up to 10% NaCl (w/v). The major fatty acids of strain LAM-WHM-ZC(T) were summed feature 3, C12 : 0, C16 : 0, summed feature 2 and summed feature 8. The predominant respiratory quinone was ubiquinone Q-8. The main polar lipids were diphosphatidyglycerol, phosphatigylethanolamine, phosphatidyglycerol, one phospholipid and four unidentified glycolipids. The DNA G+C content was 59.3 mol% as determined by the melting temperature (Tm) method. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that the isolate represented a member of the genus Oceanisphaera and was closely related to Oceanisphaera arctica KCTC 23013(T), Oceanisphaera litoralis DSM 15406(T), Oceanisphaera sediminis KACC 15117(T) and Oceanisphaera donghaensis KCTC 12522(T) with 97.7%, 97.1%, 96.6% and 96.6% sequence similarity, respectively. The DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain LAM-WHM-ZC(T) and the four reference strains were 47.4 ± 2.8%, 33.5 ± 2.2%, 28.4 ± 1.8% and 13.7 ± 0.8%, respectively. Based on its phenotypic and genotypic properties, strain LAM-WHM-ZC(T) is suggested to represent a novel species of the genus Oceanisphaera, for which the name Oceanisphaera psychrotolerans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LAM-WHM-ZC(T) ( = ACCC 06516(T) = JCM 30466(T)).