Celeribacter naphthalenivorans sp. nov., a naphthalene-degrading bacterium from tidal flat sediment.

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic and moderately halophilic bacterium, designated strain EMB201(T), was isolated from tidal flat sediment of the South Sea in Korea. Cells were motile rods with a single polar flagellum and had catalase- and oxidase-positive activities. Growth of strain EMB201(T) was observed at 15-37 °C (optimum, 30 °C), at pH 5.0-9.5 (optimum, pH 7.0-7.5) and in the presence of 1-7% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 2-3%). Strain EMB201(T) contained ubiquinone-10 as the sole isoprenoid quinone and summed feature 8 (comprising C18 : 1ω7c/ω6c), C18 : 0ω7c 11-methyl and C10 : 0 3-OH as the major fatty acids. Phosphatidylglycerol and an unidentified amino lipid were identified as the major polar lipids and an unidentified phospholipid and three unidentified lipids were detected as minor components. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was approximately 58.4 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain EMB201(T) formed a phylogenetic lineage with members of the genus Celeribacter. Strain EMB201(T) was related most closely to Celeribacter halophilus ZXM137(T) with a 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 98.3%, and the level of DNA-DNA relatedness between the two strains was 17.0 ± 2.0%. The combined chemotaxonomic and molecular properties suggest that strain EMB201(T) represents a novel species of the genus Celeribacter, for which the name Celeribacter naphthalenivorans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is EMB201(T) ( = KACC 18393(T) = JCM 30679(T)).