Pseudohongiella acticola sp. nov., a novel gammaproteobacterium isolated from seawater, and emended description of the genus Pseudohongiella.

A Gram-negative, aerobic, non-spore-forming and rod-shaped or ovoid bacterial strain able to move by a single polar flagellum, designated GBSW-5(T), was isolated from seawater in the East Sea, South Korea. Strain GBSW-5(T) was found to grow optimally at 30 °C, at pH 7.0-8.0 and in the presence of 2.0% (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain GBSW-5(T) clustered with the type strain of Pseudohongiella spirulinae. Strain GBSW-5(T) exhibited the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity value (96.4%) to the type strain of P. spirulinae, and of less than 91.0% sequence similarities to the type strains of other recognized species. Strain GBSW-5(T) was found to contain Q-8 as the predominant ubiquinone and C(18:1)ω7c and summed feature 3 (C(16:1)ω7c and/or C(16:1)ω6c) as the major fatty acids. The major polar lipids of strain GBSW-5(T) were identified as phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine. The DNA G+C content of strain GBSW-5(T) was determined to be 59.1 mol%. The differential phenotypic properties, together with the phylogenetic distinctiveness, revealed that strain GBSW-5(T) is separated from P. spirulinae. On the basis of the data presented, strain GBSW-5(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Pseudohongiella, for which the name Pseudohongiella acticola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is GBSW-5(T) (= KCTC 42131(T) = CECT 8627(T)). An emended description of the genus Pseudohongiella is also given.