Amphritea spongicola sp. nov., isolated from a marine sponge, and emended description of the genus Amphritea.

A Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped (1.2-2.1 μm × 0.8-0.9 μm), flagellated and motile marine bacterium, designated MEBiC05461T, was isolated from a marine sponge inhabiting Micronesia. Strain MEBiC05461T was oxidase-negative and catalase-positive. Growth was observed at 8.0-35.6 °C (optimum 30.0 °C), at pH 5.0-9.0 (optimum pH 7.0) and with 1.5-6.0 % (w/v, optimum 2.0-2.5 %) NaCl. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that strain MEBiC05461T showed high similarity to members of the genus Amphritea (96.4-96.6 %). The predominant cellular fatty acids were C16:0 (23.9 %), summed feature 3 (C16:1ω7c and/or C16:1ω6c; 39.7 %) and summed feature 8 (C18:1ω7c and/or C18:1ω6c; 22.0 %). The DNA G+C content was 48.5 mol%. The major respiratory quinone was Q-8.Phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, one unidentified glycolipid, one unidentified aminolipid, one unidentified glycophospholipid and two unidentified lipids were detected as the major polar lipids. On the basis of the data from this polyphasic taxonomic study, strain MEBiC05461T should be classified as a representative of a novel species in the genus Amphritea, and the name proposed is Amphritea spongicola sp. nov. The type strain is MEBiC05461T ( = KCCM 42943T = JCM 16668T). Emendations of the genus Amphritea and species Amphritea atlanticaGärtner et al. 2008 and Amphritea balenaeMiyazaki et al. 2008 are were also given.