Marinobacter maroccanus sp. nov., a moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from a saline soil.

During the taxonomic investigation of exopolymer-producing halophilic bacteria, a rod-shaped, motile, Gram-stain-negative, halophilic bacterium, designated strain N4, was isolated from a saline soil located in northern Morocco. Optimal growth of the isolate was at 30-37 ºC and at pH 7.0-8.0, in the presence of 5-7 % (w/v) NaCl. Useful characteristics for the phenotypic differentiation of strain N4 from other Marinobacter species included α-chymotrypsin and α-glucosidase activities and the carbohydrate assimilation profile. The major fatty acids detected in strain N4 were C16:0 and C18:1ω9c and the predominant respiratory quinone was ubiquinone-9. Sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA gene indicated that strain N4 belonged to the genus Marinobacter and was closely related to the type strains of Marinobacter adhaerens (99.04 % similarity), Marinobacter salsuginis (98.97 %) and Marinobacter flavimaris (98.36 %). Phylogenetic analysis of the rpoD gene sequence also showed that the nearest neighbours of strain N4 were M. salsuginis (91.49 % similarity), M. adhaerens and M. flavimaris (90.63 %). Strain N4 showed 87.98 % average nucleotide identity with M. flavimaris and M. salsuginis, and 87.47 % with M. adhaerens. Regarding in-silico genome-to-genome distance, strain N4 showed DNA-DNA hybridization values of 33.30 % with M. adhaerens, 34.60 % with M. flavimaris and 34.70 % with M. salsuginis. The DNA G+C content of strain N4 was 57.3 mol%. Based on the results of phenotypic characterization, phylogenetic analysis and genome comparison, strain N4 represents a novel species of the genus Marinobacter, for which the name Marinobacter maroccanus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is N4 (=CECT 9525=LMG 30466).