Marinomonas fungiae sp. nov., isolated from the coral Fungia echinata from the Andaman Sea.

A novel aerobic marine bacterium, strain AN44(T), was isolated from the coral Fungia echinata sampled from the Andaman Sea, India. Cells were Gram-negative, motile and rod-shaped. Oxidase and catalase tests were positive. Heterotrophic growth was observed at pH 5.5-10 and at 16-42 °C, with optimum growth at pH 7-8 and 28 °C. Strain AN44(T) grew in the presence of 0.5-11% (w/v) NaCl; the optimal NaCl concentration for growth was 3-5%. The DNA G+C content was 47.8 mol%. Predominant cellular fatty acids of strain AN44(T) were C(18 : 1)ω7c, C(16 : 1)ω7c/C(16 : 1)ω6c, C(16 : 0), C(10 : 0) 3-OH, C(12 : 0), C(10 : 0), C(14 : 0) and C(18 : 0). The sole isoprenoid ubiquinone was Q-8. The polar lipids were an unidentified phospholipid, an unidentified aminophospholipid and two unidentified glycolipids. 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons revealed that strain AN44(T) clustered within the radiation of the genus Marinomonas and showed similarity of 97.9% with Marinomonas ostreistagni UST010306-043(T), 97.8% with Marinomonas aquimarina 11SM4(T), 97.1% with Marinomonas brasilensis R-40503(T) and 97.0% with Marinomonas communis 8(T). However, DNA-DNA relatedness between strain AN44(T) and closely related type strains was well below 70%. On the basis of the data from the present polyphasic taxonomic study, strain AN44(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Marinomonas, for which the name Marinomonas fungiae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is AN44(T) ( = JCM 18476(T) = LMG 27065(T)).