Crateriforma spongiae sp. nov., isolated from a marine sponge and emended description of the genus "Crateriforma".

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, pear to oval shaped, rosette forming bacterium with crateriform structures well distributed on the cell surface designated as strain JC647T was isolated from a sponge specimen belonging to the genus Spongia. Strain JC647T reproduces through budding. Strain JC647T shared highest 16S rRNA gene sequence identity of 99.9% with "Crateriforma conspicua" Mal65T (not a valid species name). The genome size of strain JC647T is 6.9 Mb with a G + C content of 57.8 mol %. For the resolution of the phylogenetic congruence of the novel strain, the phylogeny was also constructed with the sequences of ninety-two housekeeping genes. Based on the phylogenetic analyses, low dDDH value (51.0%), low gANI (93.2%), low AAI (94.9%) results, chemotaxonomic characteristics and differential physiological properties, strain JC647T is recognized as a new species of the genus "Crateriforma", for which we propose the name Crateriforma spongiae sp. nov. The type species is JC647T (= KCTC 72176T = NBRC 114068T).