Motiliproteus coralliicola sp. nov., a bacterium isolated from coral.

A Gram-stain-negative, non-spore-forming, aerobic, motile, ovoid or rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain C34, was isolated from a Porites species coral on Weizhou Island, China. Optimal growth occurred in 4 % NaCl (w/v), at 30 °C and pH 8. The only detected respiratory quinone was Q-8. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, two unidentified ninhydrin-positive lipids, one ninhydrin-positive unidentified phospholipid and two unidentified polar lipids. The genome DNA G+C content was 56.7 mol%. The major cellular fatty acids were C16 : 1ω7c/iso-C15 : 0 2-OH, C16 : 0, C18 : 1ω7c/ω6c, C18 : 0 and iso-C11 : 0 3-OH. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain C34 forms a stable cluster with Motiliproteus sediminis CICC 10858 (with the highest sequence similarity of 95.7 %). Strain C34 was also physiologically and chemical taxonomically similar to M. sediminis CICC 10858, although they could be distinguished by colony colour on 2216E agar, the flagellum position and the diphosphatidylglycerol content in the cellular polar lipid. Thus, strain C34 is suggested to represent a new species in the genus Motiliproteus, for which the name Motiliproteus coralliicola is proposed. The type strain is C34 (=MCCC 1K03462=KCTC 62319).