Aquimarina spongiae sp. nov., isolated from marine sponge Halichondria oshoro.

A Gram-stain-negative, yellow-pigmented, rod-shaped, strictly aerobic, non-flagellated, non-gliding and oxidase- and catalase-positive bacterium, designated A6(T), was isolated from a marine sponge, Halichondria oshoro, collected on the coast of Jeju Island, South Korea. Phylogenetic analysis based on the nearly complete 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that strain A6(T) was a member of the family Flavobacteriaceae. The closest relatives were Aquimarina intermedia LMG 23204(T), A. latercula ATCC 23177(T), A. brevivitae SMK-19(T) and A. muelleri KMM 6020(T), with which strain A6(T) shared 95.7, 95.1, 94.7 and 94.6 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, respectively. The dominant fatty acids of strain A6(T) were iso-C(15 : 0) (32.2 %), iso-C(17 : 0) 3-OH (20.0 %), iso-C(15 : 0) 3-OH (12.3 %), iso-C(15 : 1) G (7.2 %) and summed feature 3 (comprising iso-C(15 : 0) 2-OH and/or C(16 : 1)ω7c; 6.8 %). The DNA G+C content of strain A6(T) was 36.0 mol% and the major respiratory quinone was MK-6. On the basis of combined phenotypic and phylogenetic analyses, strain A6(T) represents a novel species of the genus Aquimarina, for which the name Aquimarina spongiae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is A6(T) (=KCTC 22663(T) =DSM 22623(T)).