Muricauda chongwuensis sp. nov., isolated from coastal seawater of China.

In the course of screening for bacterial predators, a Gram-stain-negative, non-flagellated, gliding, long rod-shaped, and yellow-pigmented bacterium, designated strain HICW, was isolated from coastal seawater of China. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain HICW represented a member of the genus Muricauda and showed the highest sequence similarity to M. aquimarina JCM11811 (98.8%) and M. ruestringensis DSM13258 (98.1%). The average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) values between strain HICW and M. aquimarina JCM11811 were 79.2% and 34.1%, respectively. NaCl was required for growth. Optimum growth occurred at 25-30 °C, 2.0-3.0% (w/v) NaCl with pH 7.0. Strain HICW showed some similar characteristics to the nonobligate bacterial predators, and the cells can attach to the prey cells. Strain HICW contained MK-6 as the predominant respiratory quinone and had iso-C, iso-C G, and iso-C 3-OH as the major cellular fatty acids. The polar lipids contained phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), three unidentified phospholipids (PL1-PL3), one unidentified amino lipids (AL), and three unidentified polar lipids (L1-L3). The genome size of strain HICW was approximately 3.8 Mbp, with a G + C content of 41.4%. Based on the polyphasic evidence, strain HICW is proposed as representing a new species of the genus Muricauda, for which the name Muricauda chongwuensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is HICW (= JCM 33643 = MCCC 1K03769).