Salinicoccus jeotgali sp. nov., isolated from jeotgal, a traditional Korean fermented seafood

Abstract

A novel, moderately halophilic, Gram-positive coccus, designated strain S2R53-5T, was isolated from jeotgal, a traditional Korean fermented seafood. The organism was strictly aerobic, non-motile, non-sporulating and catalase- and oxidase-positive. Strain S2R53-5T grew in the presence of 0.5–15 % (w/v) NaCl and at pH 6.5–11.0, with optimum growth at 5 % (w/v) NaCl and pH 7.0. The temperature range for growth was 20.0–30.0 °C, with an optimum temperature of 30 °C. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain S2R53-5T belongs to the family Staphylococcaceae and was most closely related to Salinicoccus roseus DSM 5351T (96.8 % gene sequence similarity), Salinicoccus hispanicus DSM 5352T (96.1 %), Salinicoccus alkaliphilus T8T (95.2 %) and Jeotgalicoccus halotolerans YKJ-101T (95.1 %). The genomic DNA G+C content was 47.0 mol%, which is in the range of 46–51 mol% that is characteristic for the genus Salinicoccus. Levels of DNA–DNA relatedness between strain S2R53-5T and S. roseus DSM 5351T, S. hispanicus DSM 5352T and S. alkaliphilus KCTC 13928T were 32.2, 15.4 and 4.6 %, respectively. Chemotaxonomic data (major menaquinone, MK-6; major fatty acids, iso-C15 : 0 and anteiso-C15 : 0; cell-wall murein type, Lys and Gly) and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis supported the affiliation of strain S2R53-5T with the genus Salinicoccus. The combined evidence from the low DNA–DNA relatedness, physiological, biochemical and other genotypic data indicate that strain S2R53-5T clearly represents a novel species of the genus Salinicoccus, for which the name Salinicoccus jeotgali sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is S2R53-5T (=KCTC 13030T=LMG 23640T).