Formosa spongicola sp. nov., isolated from the marine sponge Hymeniacidon flavia

Abstract

A Gram-negative, yellow-pigmented, rod-shaped, strictly aerobic, non-flagellated, oxidase- and catalase-positive, marine bacterium, designated A2T, was isolated from a marine sponge, Hymeniacidon flavia, collected from the coast of Jeju Island, South Korea. Phylogenetic analysis based on nearly complete 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain A2T was a member of the family Flavobacteriaceae. Its closest relatives were Formosa agariphila KMM 3901T and Formosa algae KMM 3553T (96.99 and 96.98 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, respectively). DNA–DNA relatedness between strain A2T and F. agariphila KMM 3901T and F. algae KMM 3553T was 14.1 and 26.8 %, respectively. The dominant fatty acids (>5 %) of strain A2T were iso-C15 : 0 (33.9 %), iso-C17 : 0 3-OH (20.8 %), iso-C15 : 1 G (10.5 %) and iso-C15 : 0 3-OH (6.1 %). The DNA G+C content of strain A2T was 36.0 mol% and the major respiratory quinone was MK-6. On the basis of phenotypic and phylogenetic analysis, strain A2T represents a novel species of the genus Formosa, for which the name Formosa spongicola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is A2T (=KCTC 22662T =DSM 22637T).