Shewanella spongiae sp. nov., isolated from a marine sponge

Abstract

A psychrophilic bacterium, designated strain HJ039T, was isolated from a marine sponge collected in the East Sea of Korea (also known as the Sea of Japan). Cells were Gram-negative, motile and rod-shaped (1.8–3.54 μm×0.27–0.73 μm). Growth was observed between 5 and 26 °C (optimum 15 °C), at pH 5.0–8.5 (optimum pH 6.0–6.5) and in the presence of 0–6.0 % NaCl (optimum 2.0 %). The 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain HJ039T showed high levels of similarity (93.7–95.4 %) with members of the genus Shewanella, especially with Shewanella gaetbuli TF-27T (95.2 %), Shewanella decolorationis S12T (94.9 %), Shewanella putrefaciens LMG 26268T (94.6 %), Shewanella hafniensis P010T (94.6 %), Shewanella algae ATCC 51192T (94.5 %) and Shewanella kaireitica c931T (94.5 %). However, phylogenetic analysis revealed that strain HJ039T shared a phyletic line with S. algae and Shewanella amazonensis. The major respiratory quinone was Q-8. The DNA G+C content was 52.8 mol%. The major fatty acids were i-13 : 0 (8.5 %), 15 : 0 (4.2 %), i-15 : 0 (23.2 %), i-15 : 1 (7.9 %), 16 : 0 (8.7 %), 16 : 1ω7 (21.0 %) and 17 : 1ω8 (6.4 %). From this polyphasic taxonomic evidence, strain HJ039T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Shewanella, for which the name Shewanella spongiae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is HJ039T (=KCCM 42304T=JCM 13830T).