Leisingera aquimarina sp. nov., isolated from a marine electroactive biofilm, and emended descriptions of Leisingera methylohalidivorans Schaefer et al. 2002, Phaeobacter daeponensis Yoon et al. 2007 and Phaeobacter inhibens Martens et al. 2006.

Strain LMG 24366(T) was isolated from a marine electroactive biofilm grown on a stainless steel cathode (Genova, Italy) and was investigated by using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. This study demonstrated that strain LMG 24366(T) represents a novel species within the genus Leisingera, which shared 98.9 % 16S rRNA gene similarity with its nearest phylogenetic neighbour, Leisingera methylohalidivorans. Strain LMG 24366(T) grew on betaine (1 mM) as a sole carbon source, whereas no growth was observed on L-methionine (10 mM). The phenotypic and genotypic analyses showed that strain LMG 24366(T) could be differentiated from established Leisingera species and that it represented a novel species, for which the name Leisingera aquimarina sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LMG 24366(T) (=CCUG 55860(T)) and has a DNA G+C content of 61.4 mol%.