Confluentibacter lentus gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from the junction between the ocean and a freshwater lake.

A Gram-stain-negative, non-flagellated, non-gliding, aerobic and rod-shaped bacterium, designated HJM-3T, was isolated from the place where the ocean and a freshwater lake meet at Hwajinpo on the East Sea, South Korea, and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. The novel strain grew optimally at 30-35 °C, at pH 7.0-7.5 and in the presence of 1.0-2.0 % (w/v) NaCl. A neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain HJM-3T clustered with the type strain of Yeosuana aromativorans and the proposed type strain of Mariniflexile ostreae. Strain HJM-3T exhibited the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values (each 95.1 %) to these representative strains of Y. aromativorans and M. ostreae, and sequence similarities of less than 94.9 % to the type strains of other recognized species. Strain HJM-3T contained menaquinone-6 as the predominant isoprenoid quinone, and iso-C15 : 0, iso-C15 : 1 G and iso-C17 : 0 3-OH as the major fatty acids. The major polar lipids detected in strain HJM-3T were phosphatidylethanolamine and one unidentified lipid. The DNA G+C content of strain HJM-3T was 34.7 mol%. The fatty acid and polar lipid profiles and DNA G+C content of strain HJM-3T could be distinguished from those of the phylogenetically related taxa. On the basis of the phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and other phenotypic properties, strain HJM-3T is considered to represent a novel genus and species within the family Flavobacteriaceae, for which the name Confluentibacter lentus gen. nov., sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is HJM-3T ( = KCTC 42777T = NBRC 111588T).