Ningiella ruwaisensis gen. nov., sp. nov., a member of the family Alteromonadaceae isolated from marine water of the Arabian Gulf

Abstract

Strain B66T was isolated from a marine water sample collected at Al Ruwais, located on the northern tip of Qatar. Cells were Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic and short- rod-shaped with a polar flagellum. The isolate was able to grow at 15–45 °C (optimum, 30 °C), at pH 5–11 (optimum, pH 6.5–8) and with 0–6 % NaCl. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that strain B66T was affiliated with the family Alteromonadaceae , sharing the highest sequence similarities to the genera Alteromonas (93.7–95.4 %), Aestuariibacter (94.0–95.1 %), Agaribacter (93.3–93.7 %), Glaciecola (92.0–93.7 %), Marisendiminitalea (93.2–93.3 %) and Planctobacterium (92.9 %). In the phylogenetic trees, strain B66T demonstrated the novel organism formed a distinct lineage closely associated with Aestuariibacter and Planctobacterium . Major fatty acids were C16 : 0, summed feature 3 (C16 : 1  ω7c/C16 : 1  ω6c/iso-C15 : 0 2-OH and iso-C15 : 0 3-OH. The major respiratory quinone was ubiquinone-8 and the major polar lipids are phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine. The DNA G+C content derived from the genome was 43.2 mol%. Based on the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, phylogenetic and genomic data, strain B66T is considered to represent a novel species and genus for which the name Ningiella ruwaisensis gen. nov., sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is B66T (=QCC B003/17T=LMG 30288 T=CCUG 70703T).