Erythrobacter flavus sp. nov., a slight halophile from the East Sea in Korea.

Two gram-negative, motile, non-spore-forming, yellow-pigmented and slightly halophilic strains (SW-46T and SW-52) were isolated from sea water of the East Sea, Korea, and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. Strains SW-46T and SW-52 were characterized chemotaxonomically by having ubiquinone-10 (Q-10) as the predominant respiratory lipoquinone and C18:1 omega7c as the major fatty acid. Their DNA G + C content was 64.0-64.1 mol%. Strains SW-46T and SW-52 showed 1 bp difference in their 16S rDNA sequences and a mean DNA-DNA relatedness level of 94.4%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rDNA sequences showed that strains SW-46T and SW-52 fall within the alpha-subclass of the Proteobacteria and form a coherent cluster with Erythrobacter longus, Erythrobacter litoralis and Erythrobacter citreus. Levels of 16S rDNA similarity between strains SW-46T and SW-52 and the type strains of these three Erythrobacter species were 96.5-97.9%. Levels of DNA-DNA relatedness between strains SW-46T and SW-52 and the type strains of E. longus, E. litoralis and E. citreus were 3.6-14.7%. Therefore, on the basis of phenotypic properties, phylogeny and genomic data, strains SW-46T and SW-52 should be placed in the genus Erythrobacter as a novel species, for which the name Erythrobacter flavus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SW-46T (= KCCM 41642T = JCM 11808T).