Psychrobacter aestuarii sp. nov., isolated from a tidal flat sediment

Abstract

A Gram-negative-staining, non-motile, non-spore-forming and strictly aerobic bacterial strain, SC35T, was isolated from tidal flat sediment collected from the South Sea, Korea, and subjected to a taxonomic study using a polyphasic approach. The organism grew optimally at 20–30 °C and with 1–2 % (w/v) NaCl. Strain SC35T contained ubiquinone-8 as the predominant respiratory lipoquinone and C18 : 1 ω9c as the major fatty acid. The DNA G+C content was 48.5 mol%. A phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain SC35T formed a lineage within the genus Psychrobacter (94.3–96.5 % sequence similarity), forming a distinct branch in a clade also containing Psychrobacter pacificensis NIBH P2K6T and Psychrobacter celer SW-238T. On the basis of phenotypic and phylogenetic data, strain SC35T (=KCTC 22503T=JCM 16343T) was placed in the genus Psychrobacter as the type strain of a novel species, for which the name Psychrobacter aestuarii sp. nov. is proposed.