Altererythrobacter lutipelagi sp. nov., isolated from a tidal mudflat, and emended description of the genus Altererythrobacter.

A marine proteobacterium, designated strain GH1-16T, was isolated from a sample of tidal mudflat collected at the seashore of Gangwha Island, Republic of Korea and the taxonomic status was examined by a polyphasic approach. The isolate was Gram-reaction-negative, strictly aerobic, catalase- and oxidase-positive, non-motile, short-rod-shaped and produced yellow-coloured colonies. An absolute requirement for Na+ was observed. The major respiratory quinone was ubiquinone-10. The major polar lipids consisted of phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and sphingoglycolipid. The dominant cellular fatty acids were summed feature 8 (C18 : 1ω7c and/or C18 : 1ω6c) and C17 : 1ω6c. The DNA G+C content was 60.6 mol%. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain GH1-16T was closely related to members of the genus Altererythrobacter. The closest relative was Altererythrobacter marensis MSW-14T (97.3 % sequence similarity) followed by Altererythrobacter aquaemixtae JSSK-8T (96.8 %) and Altererythrobacter epoxidivorans JCS350T (96.7 %). The DNA relatedness of strain GH1-16T against its closest relative was 21.8-25.0 %. On the basis of data obtained by a polyphasic taxonomic approach, strain GH1-16T (=KCTC 52845T=NBRC 113275T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Altererythrobacter, for which the name Altererythrobacter lutipelagi sp. nov. is proposed.