Description of Palleronia rufa sp. nov., a biofilm-forming and AHL-producing Rhodobacteraceae, reclassification of Hwanghaeicola aestuarii as Palleronia aestuarii comb. nov., Maribius pontilimi as Palleronia pontilimi comb. nov., Maribius salinus as Palleronia salina comb. nov., Maribius pelagius as Palleronia pelagia comb. nov. and emended description of the genus Palleronia.

Strain MOLA 401T was isolated from marine waters in the southwest lagoon of New Caledonia and was shown previously to produce an unusual diversity of quorum sensing signaling molecules. This strain was Gram-negative, formed non-motile cocci and colonies were caramel. Optimum growth conditions were 30°C, pH 8 and 3% NaCl (w/v). Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, this strain was found to be closely related to Pseudomaribius aestuariivivens NBRC 113039T (96.9% of similarity), Maribius pontilimi DSM 104950T (96.4% of similarity) and Palleronia marisminoris LMG 22959T (96.3% of similarity), belonging to the Roseobacter group within the family Rhodobacteraceae. As its closest relatives, strain MOLA 401T is able to form a biofilm on polystyrene, supporting the view of Roseobacter group strains as prolific surface colonizers. An in-depth genomic study allowed us to affiliate strain MOLA 401T as a new species of genus Palleronia and to reaffiliate some of its closest relatives in this genus. Consequently, we describe strain MOLA 401T (DSM 106827T=CIP 111607T=BBCC 401T) for which we propose the name Palleronia rufa sp. nov. We also propose to emend the description of the genus Palleronia and to reclassify Maribius and Hwanghaeicola species as Palleronia species.