Mariniblastus fucicola gen. nov., sp. nov. a novel planctomycete associated with macroalgae.

One strain of a novel genus and species of the order Planctomycetes, designated FC18T, was isolated from the epiphytic community of Fucusspiralis. This strain was non-pigmented in medium M13 but was slightly pink pigmented on medium M14, containing four-fold the levels of glucose, peptone and yeast extract of M13. The organism was primarily spherical, with unicellular non-motile forms and rosettes. The optimal temperature for growth was about 25 °C and the optimal pH was 7.5. FC18T was chemoorganotrophic and aerobic. Several sugars, polyols and amino acids were assimilated. The major fatty acids were C18 : 1ω9c, C14 : 0 and C16 : 0. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol (PG) and two unknown lipids. Menaquinone 5 (MK-5) was the main respiratory quinone, but MK-6 was also present. The results of the 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis confirmed the affiliation of this organism to the order Planctomycetales, family Planctomycetaceae, with Blastopirellula marina as the closest relative with only 86 % sequence similarity. On the basis of physiological, biochemical and chemotaxonomic characteristics we propose that FC18T(=LMG 29748T=DSM 26290T) represents a novel species of a novel genus of the family Planctomycetaceae for which we propose the name Mariniblastusfucicola gen. nov., sp. nov.