Photobacterium aestuarii sp. nov., a marine bacterium isolated from a tidal flat.

A Gram-staining-negative, motile, weakly halophilic and facultatively aerobic bacterium, designated strain YA11(T), was isolated from tidal flat sediment at Yeongam Bay, South Korea. Strain YA11(T) grew at 10-30 °C (optimum, 20 °C), at pH 6.0-10.0 (optimum, pH 6.5-7.5) and in the presence of 1-6% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 2-3%). The major cellular fatty acids of the strain were summed feature 3 (C(16 : 1)ω7c and/or C(16 : 1)ω6c), summed feature 8 (C(18 : 1)ω7c and/or C(18 : 1)ω6c) and C(16 : 0). The DNA G+C content of the genomic DNA was 44.2 mol%. Strain YA11(T) contained Q-8 as the sole respiratory quinone. A phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain YA11(T) formed a distinct phyletic lineage within the genus Photobacterium and the 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities between strain YA11(T) and the type strains of species of the genus Photobacterium ranged between 94.0 and 96.4%. Based on the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and molecular properties, strain YA11(T) represents a novel species of the genus Photobacterium, for which the name Photobacterium aestuarii sp. nov. is proposed, with strain YA11(T)( = KACC 16912(T) = JCM 18592(T)) as the type strain.