Litoricola marina sp. nov.

A Gram-negative, non-pigmented, non-motile, chemoheterotrophic marine bacterium, designated strain IMCC2782(T), was isolated from a surface seawater sample of the Yellow Sea, Korea. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis and phenotypic and genotypic characterization, strain IMCC2782(T) is shown to represent a novel species of the genus Litoricola. Strain IMCC2782(T) grew at 15-37 degrees C and tolerated 7.5% NaCl. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, strain IMCC2782(T) was related most closely to the type strain of Litoricola lipolytica (97.1% similarity) but showed less than 90 % similarity to the type strains of other bacterial species. The predominant fatty acids were mono-unsaturated C(18 : 1) and C(16 : 1). The G+C content of the DNA of strain IMCC2782(T) was 59.6 mol%. A low level of DNA-DNA relatedness (28.1%) together with several phenotypic characteristics, including enzyme activities, served to differentiate strain IMCC2782(T) from the type strain of L. lipolytica. Therefore, strain IMCC2782(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Litoricola, for which the name Litoricola marina sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is IMCC2782(T) (=KCTC 22683(T) =NBRC 105824(T)).