Tropicibacter naphthalenivorans gen. nov., sp. nov., a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-degrading bacterium isolated from Semarang Port in Indonesia.

An aerobic, Gram-negative, motile bacterium, strain C02(T), was isolated from seawater obtained from Semarang Port in Indonesia. Cells of strain C02(T) were peritrichously flagellated and rod-shaped. Strain C02(T) was able to degrade naphthalene, alkylnaphthalenes and phenanthrene. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that this strain was affiliated with the family Rhodobacteraceae in the class Alphaproteobacteria and was related most closely to Marinovum algicola FF3(T) (95.7 % similarity) and Thalassobius aestuarii JC2049(T) (95.2 %). The DNA G+C content of strain C02(T) was 64.6 mol%. The major cellular fatty acids were C(18 : 1)omega7c (50.9 % of the total), C(16 : 0) (17.9 %), 11 methyl C(18 : 1)omega7c (14.7 %), C(18 : 1)omega9c (2.9 %) and C(19 : 0) cyclo omega8c (2.4 %), and the predominant respiratory lipoquinone was ubiquinone-10. Based on physiological, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data, strain C02(T) is suggested to represent a novel species of a new genus, for which the name Tropicibacter naphthalenivorans gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Tropicibacter naphthalenivorans is C02(T) (=JCM 14838(T)=DSM 19561(T)).