Kordia zosterae sp. nov., isolated from the seaweed, Zostera marina.

A Gram-stain-negative, gliding and rod shaped bacterium, designated strain ZO2-23 was isolated from a seaweed sample collected from the West Sea, Republic of Korea. Cells are catalase-negative and oxidase-positive. Neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain ZO2-23 forms an independent lineage within the genus Kordia. Strain ZO2-23 was related to Kordia ulvae SC2 (98.0 %, 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity) and K. antarctica IMCC3317 (97.9 %). The major fatty acids of strain ZO2-23 were iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 0 3-OH, summed feature 3 and iso-C15 : 0 3-OH. The only isoprenoid quinone of the isolate was menaquinone-6. The DNA G+C content of strain ZO2-23 was 31.7 mol%. Phenotypic characteristics distinguished strain ZO2-23 from the related species of the genus Kordia. On the basis of the evidences presented in this study, novel species, Kordia zosterae sp. nov., is proposed for strain ZO2-23 (=KCTC 52268=JCM 31799).