Sphingomonas jejuensis sp. nov., isolated from marine sponge Hymeniacidon flavia.

A Gram-negative, non-motile, rod shaped, and orange-pigmented chemoheterotrophic bacterium, strain MS-31(T) was isolated from the marine sponge Hymeniacidon flavia, collected from near Jeju Island, Korea. The Strain MS-31(T) was subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. The phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the novel isolate could be affiliated within the genus Sphingomonas. The strain MS-31(T) showed 95.6% of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with the most closely related species Sphingomonas koreensis JSS26(T). The DNA G+C content of the strain MS-31(T) was 69.4 mol%. The major isoprenoid quinone was ubiqunone 10 and predominant cellular fatty acids were summed feature 7 (comprising C(18:1) ω7c, C(18:1) Ω9t and/or C(18:1) ωl2t, 39.7%), C(16:0) (16.3%), C(14:0) 2OH (15.9%) and summed feature 3 (comprising C(16:1) ω7c and/or C(15:0) iso 2OH, 11.7%). The polar lipids were sphingoglycolipid, phosphatidyletha-nolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol and unidentified glycolipid. Based on the evidence from the polyphasic taxonomic study, the strain should be classified as a new species of the genus Sphingomonas. As a result, the name Sphingomonas jejuensis sp. nov. (type strain MS-31(T) =KCTC 23321(T) =NBRC 107775(T)) is proposed.