Bizionia paragorgiae gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel member of the family Flavobacteriaceae isolated from the soft coral Paragorgia arborea.

A novel marine bacterium isolated from the soft coral Paragorgia arborea in the Sea of Okhotsk was studied by using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. The strain, KMM 6029T, was strictly aerobic, heterotrophic, yellow-pigmented, non-motile by gliding, Gram-negative and oxidase-, catalase- and alkaline phosphatase-positive. From results of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain KMM 6029T occupied a distinct lineage within the family Flavobacteriaceae and showed 95.5 % similarity to its closest relative, Formosa algae. The DNA G+C content was 37.6 mol%. Major respiratory quinone was MK-6. The predominant fatty acids were i15 : 0, a15 : 0, i15 : 1, a15 : 1, i16 : 1, i16 : 0, i16 : 0 3-OH and summed feature 3 (i15 : 0 2-OH and/or 16 : 1omega7c). On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, genotypic and phylogenetic characteristics the novel bacterium has been assigned to Bizionia gen. nov., as Bizionia paragorgiae gen. nov., sp. nov. The type strain is KMM 6029T (=KCTC 12304T=LMG 22571T).