Assignment of Vibrio sp. strain ABE-1 to Colwellia maris sp. nov., a new psychrophilic bacterium.

A psychrophilic bacterium, previously described as Vibrio sp. strain ABE-1T, has been reassigned by phenotypic characterization, chemotaxonomic analysis and 16S rRNA phylogenetic analysis. The organism was curved rods and it could reduce nitrate to nitrite and hydrolyse gelatin and DNA, but not chitin. NaCl was required for growth. This strain was susceptible to the vibriostatic compound O/129. The major isoprenoid quinone was ubiquinone-8 and the DNA G + C content was 39.4 mol%. The whole-cell fatty acids comprised saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids with 10-18 C atoms; saturated and monounsaturated C16 fatty acids were predominant. Strain ABE-1T contained the unique trans-unsaturated fatty acid, 9-trans-hexadecenoic acid. Although strain ABE-1T has been identified as a Vibrio species, the strain did not ferment glucose. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA sequencing indicated that strain ABE-1T was more closely related to Colwellia species than to Vibrio species. However, strain ABE-1T differed from other reported Colwellia species in terms of phylogenetic position, some phenotypic characteristics, chemotaxonomic analysis and relatedness by DNA-DNA hybridization. Accordingly, the name Colwellia maris is proposed. The type strain is ABE-1T (= JCM 10085T).