Altererythrobacter rubellus sp. nov., a marine alphaproteobacterium isolated from seawater.

Abstract

The phylogenetic and taxonomic status of an alphaproteobacterium isolated from seawater, collected in the Republic of Korea, was elucidated based on a polyphasic method. Strain KMU-45T was Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic, rod-shaped, non-motile and chemoheterotrophic. Phylogenetic investigation based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence demonstrated that the novel marine isolate belongs to the family Erythrobacteraceae, of the class Alphaproteobacteria, and that it possessed the highest (98.7%) sequence similarity with Altererythrobacter ishigakiensis ATCC BAA-2084T. DNA-DNA hybridization values between strains KMU-45T and A. ishigakiensis KCTC 42446T were 31.4%±8.4%. The major isoprenoid quinone of the novel isolate was ubiquinone-10 (Q-10) and the major (>10%) cellular fatty acids were C17:1 ω8c, C17:1 ω6c and C18:1 ω7c. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain KMU-45T was 57.7 mol%. The polar lipid profile of the strain KMU-45T comprised phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, an unidentified phospholipid and an unidentified lipid. From the polyphasic taxonomic results in this study, the bacterium can be considered to represent a new species of the genus Altererythrobacter, for which the name Altererythrobacter rubellus sp. nov. is proposed. The type species is A. rubellus sp. nov., with the type strain KMU-45T (=KCCM 90270T=NBRC 112769T).