Bizionia argentinensis sp. nov., isolated from surface marine water in Antarctica.

A marine bacterial strain, designated strain JUB59(T), was isolated from surface seawater in Antarctica and subsequently characterized. Cells were found to be Gram-negative, non-motile rods forming butyrous, shiny, yellowish orange colonies on marine agar. Growth occurred at 2-28 degrees C (optimally at 22-25 degrees C) but not at 30 degrees C; Na+ ions were required, but 9 % NaCl (w/v) was not tolerated. Phylogenetic analysis, based on comparisons of the complete 16S rRNA gene sequence of the novel isolate with the sequences of closely related strains, showed that strain JUB59(T) belonged to the family Flavobacteriaceae, representing a novel species of the genus Bizionia. The highest levels of sequence similarity were found with respect to Bizionia myxarmorum ADA-4(T) (97.4 %) and Bizionia algoritergicola APA-1(T) (97.1 %). However, the DNA-DNA relatedness of strain JUB59(T) with respect to these two strains was low (15.9-17.3 and 19.3-22.1 %, respectively). The predominant fatty acids of strain JUB59(T) were iso-15 : 1omega10c (18.1 %), iso-15 : 0 (17.3 %), anteiso-15 : 0 (13.9 %), iso-17 : 0 3-OH (9.2 %), 15 : 0 (6.0 %) and iso-16 : 0 3-OH (5.3 %). The main polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, an aminolipid, an amino-positive phospholipid and two unidentified lipids. MK-6 was the major respiratory quinone (>90 %) and the DNA G+C content was 34 mol%. On the basis of the data obtained, strain JUB59(T) represents a novel species of the genus Bizionia, for which the name Bizionia argentinensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is JUB59(T) (=DSM 19628(T)=CCM-A-29 1259(T)).