Robertkochia marina gen. nov., sp. nov., of the family Flavobacteriaceae, isolated from surface seawater, and emended descriptions of the genera Joostella and Galbibacter.

A Gram-staining-negative, orange-pigmented, strictly aerobic, carotenoid-producing, rod-shaped, non-flagellated, non-spore-forming bacterium, motile by gliding, designated strain CC-AMO-30D(T), was isolated from surface seawater collected near Taichung harbour, Taiwan. Strain CC-AMO-30D(T) shared pairwise 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of 94.8, 93.7 and 92.5% with the type strains of the type species of the genera Joostella, Pustulibacterium and Galbibacter, respectively, and formed a distinct monophyletic lineage in phylogenetic trees. The major fatty acids (≥ 5% of total) were iso-C15 : 1 G, iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 0 3-OH, iso-C15 : 0 3-OH, iso-C16 : 0 and anteiso-C15 : 0. The polar lipid profile consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, four unidentified lipids, two unidentified aminolipids and an unidentified phospholipid. The major polyamine was the triamine sym-homospermidine. The DNA G+C content was 47.1 mol% and the predominant respiratory quinone was menaquinone-6 (MK-6). Based on the phylogenetic distinctiveness and distinguishing phenotypic characteristics, strain CC-AMO-30D(T) represents a novel genus and species of the family Flavobacteriaceae, for which the name Robertkochia marina gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain of the type species Robertkochia marina is CC-AMO-30D(T) ( = JCM 18552(T) = BCRC 80469(T)). Emended descriptions of the genera Joostella and Galbibacter are also proposed.