Granulosicoccus undariae sp. nov., a member of the family Granulosicoccaceae isolated from a brown algae reservoir and emended description of the genus Granulosicoccus.

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-flagellated and coccoid bacterial strain, W-BA3(T), which was isolated from a brown algae reservoir in Wando of South Korea, was characterized taxonomically. Strain W-BA3(T) was found to grow optimally at 30 °C, at pH 7.0-8.0 and in presence of 2.0 % (w/v) NaCl. In the neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, strain W-BA3(T) clustered with the type strains of Granulosicoccus antarcticus and Granulosicoccus coccoides, with which it exhibited sequence similarity values of 98.4-99.3 %. Sequence similarity values of strain W-BA3(T) to the type strains of the other recognized species were less than 90.2 %. Strain W-BA3(T) was found to contain Q-8 as the predominant ubiquinone and summed feature 3 (C16:1 ω7c and/or C16:1 ω6c), C18:1 ω7c and C16:0 as the major fatty acids. The major polar lipids of strain W-BA3(T), which were identified as phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol, were similar to those of the type strains of G. antarcticus and G. coccoides. The DNA G+C content of strain W-BA3(T) was 56.0 mol % and its mean DNA-DNA relatedness values with the type strains of G. coccoides and G. antarcticus were 27 and 17 %, respectively. Differential phenotypic properties, together with the phylogenetic and genetic distinctiveness, demonstrated that strain W-BA3(T) is separated from the two Granulosicoccus species. On the basis of the data presented, strain W-BA3(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Granulosicoccus, for which the name Granulosicoccus undariae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is W-BA3(T) (=KCTC 42134(T) = NBRC 110411(T)). An emended description of the genus Granulosicoccus is also proposed.