Flavimarina flava sp. nov., isolated from Salicornia herbacea.

A Gram-stain-negative, motile-by-gliding, aerobic, non-spore-forming, rod-shaped and yellow-pigmented bacterium was isolated from Salicornia herbacea in the Yellow Sea and designated as strain MBLN091T. It belonged to the family Flavobacteriaceae. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of this isolated strain was similar to that of Flavimarina pacifica IDSW-73T with 94.8 % similarity, and with 92.3-92.8 % similarities to those of other closely related species of the genus Leeuwenhoekiella. The similarities of the RNA polymerase subunit B gene between this strain and F. pacifica KCTC 32466T and Leeuwenhoekiella marinoflava DSM 3653T were 80.5 and 80.2 %, respectively. Growth of strain MBLN091T was observed in the presence of 0.5‒15.0 % (w/v) NaCl at 4‒35 °C and pH 6.0-8.0, with optimal growth in the presence of 2.5‒5.0 % (w/v) NaCl at 20‒25 °C and pH 7.0. This isolate was able to hydrolyse gelatin. The only respiratory quinone was MK-6. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified aminolipid and two unidentified lipids. Major fatty acids of the isolate were iso-C15 : 0, summed feature 3 (C16 : 1 ω7c and/or C16 : 1 ω6c), iso-C17 : 0 3-OH and iso-C15 : 1 G. The genomic DNA G+C content was 39.6 mol%. The physiological features were closely related to F. pacifica. Therefore, strain MBLN091T is considered to represent a novel species within the genus Flavimarina, for which the name Flavimarina flava sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is MBLN091T (=KCTC 52527T=JCM 31731T).