Aureivirga marina gen. nov., sp. nov., a marine bacterium isolated from the Mediterranean sponge Axinella verrucosa

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Two bacterial strains, VI.14 and VIII.04(T), were isolated from the Mediterranean sponge Axinella verrucosa collected off the Israeli coast near Sdot Yam. The non-motile, aerobic, Gram-negative isolates were oxidase-negative and catalase-positive, and formed golden-brown colonies on marine agar 2216. The pigment was neither diffusible nor flexirubin-like. Strain VIII.04(T) grew at 15-37 °C, at pH 6.0-9.0, in the presence of 20-50 g NaCl l(-1) and 20-80 g sea salts l(-1), The spectrum was narrower for strain VI.14, with growth at pH 7.0-8.0. and in the presence of 30-50 g NaCl l(-1) and 30-70 g sea salts l(-1). The predominant fatty acid (>50 %) in both strains was iso-C15 : 0, and the major respiratory quinone was MK-6. The DNA G+C content was 30.7 and 31.1 mol% for VIII.04(T) and VI.14, respectively. Results from 16S rRNA sequence similarity and phylogenetic analyses indicated that both strains are closely related to members of the family Flavobacteriaceae within the phylum Bacteroidetes, with as much as 91.7 % 16S rRNA sequence similarity. On the basis of data from the polyphasic analysis, we suggest that the strains represent a novel species in a new genus within the family Flavobacteriaceae, for which the name Aureivirga marina gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. Strain VIII.04(T) ( = ATCC BAA-2394(T) = LMG 26721(T)) is the type strain of Aureivirga marina.