Aurantivirga profunda gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from deep-seawater, a novel member of the family Flavobacteriaceae

Abstract

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, proteorhodopsin-containing, orange, rod-shaped bacterium, designated SAORIC-234T, was isolated from deep seawater in the Pacific Ocean. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that the strain could be affiliated with the family Flavobacteriaceae of the phylum Bacteroidetes and shared less than 94.6 % similarity with other species of the family with validly published names. The phenotypic characteristics of this novel isolate, such as growth properties and enzyme activities, could be differentiated from those of other species. The strain was non-motile, oxidase-positive and catalase-negative. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was determined to be 34.8 mol% and menaquinone-6 (MK-6) was the predominant isoprenoid quinone. The predominant fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, iso-C15 : 1 G, iso-C16 : 0 3-OH, iso-C17 : 0 3-OH and iso-C15 : 0 3-OH. The major polar lipids comprised phosphatidylethanolamine, three unknown aminolipids and three unknown lipids. On the basis of the taxonomic data collected in this study, it was concluded that strain SAORIC-234T represents a novel genus and species in the family Flavobacteriaceae, for which the name Aurantivirga profunda gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of the type species, Aurantivirga profunda sp. nov., is SAORIC-234T ( = NBRC 110606T = KACC 18400T).