Colwellia chukchiensis sp. nov., a psychrotolerant bacterium isolated from the Arctic Ocean

Abstract

A novel psychrotolerant bacterial strain, BCw111T, was isolated from seawater samples from the Chukchi Sea in the Arctic Ocean. Cells of strain BCw111T were Gram-negative, motile, facultatively anaerobic, curved rods and were able to grow at 0–30 °C (optimum 23–25 °C). Strain BCw111T had Q-8 as the major respiratory quinone and contained iso-C15 : 0 2-OH and/or C16 : 1ω7c (28.13 %), C16 : 0 (13.28 %) and C17 : 1 (12.90 %) as the major cellular fatty acids. The genomic DNA G+C content was 41.3 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain BCw11T formed a distinct lineage within the genus Colwellia and exhibited the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with Colwellia polaris 537T (97.8 %) and Colwellia aestuarii SMK-10T (97.1 %). Based on phenotypic characteristics, phylogenetic analysis and DNA–DNA relatedness, a novel species, Colwellia chukchiensis sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is BCw111T ( = CGMCC 1.9127T  = LMG 25329T  = DSM 22576T).