Erythrobacter zhengii sp. nov., a bacterium isolated from deep-sea sediment.

A Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic, rod-shaped bacterium, designated V18T, was isolated from a deep-sea sediment sample collected from the Pacific Ocean and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic investigation. Cells of strain V18T grew in medium containing 0-10.0 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum 1.0 %), at pH 5.5-9.0 (optimum 6.5-7.0) and at 10-40 °C (optimum 30-37 °C). Aesculin and Tweens 20, 40, 60 and 80 were hydrolysed. The isolate contained carotenoid-like pigments and lacked bacteriochlorophyll a. Strain V18T was closely related to members of the genus Erythrobacter, namely Erythrobacter odishensis JA747T (98.9 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), E. westpacificensis JLT2008T (98.8 %), E. gangjinensis K7-2T (97.7 %), E. aquimixticola JSSK-14T (97.6 %), E. marinus KCTC 23554T (97.4 %), E. atlanticus s21-N3T (97.3 %), E. arachoides RC4-10-4T (97.2 %), E. citreus RE35F/1T (97.1 %) and E. luteus KA37T (97.0 %), and exhibited less than 97.0 % sequence similarity with the type strains of other species with validly published names. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that strain V18T clustered with E. odishensis JA747T and formed an independent lineage. The average nucleotide identity and in silico DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain V18T and the type strains of Erythrobacter species were 70.5-83.4 % and 18.4-26.1 %, respectively. Strain V18T contained ubiquinone 10 (Q-10) as the sole respiratory quinone. The major fatty acids (>10 %) were summed feature 8 (C18 : 1ω7c and/or C18 : 1ω6c), summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c) and C16 : 0. The major polar lipids were sphingoglycolipid (SGL), diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG), phosphatidyglycerol (PG), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and one unidentified lipid (L1). The DNA G+C content was 62.6 mol%. According to the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data, strain V18T represents a novel species of the genus Erythrobacter, for which the name Erythrobacter zhengii is proposed. The type strain is V18T (=KCTC 62389T=MCCC 1K03475T).