Coralslurrinella hongkonensis gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel bacterium in the family Psychromonadaceae, isolated from the coral Platygyra carnosus

Abstract

A novel bacterial strain, JLT2006T, was isolated from the scleractinian coral Platygyra carnosus, located in Hong Kong, China. Cells of this strain were Gram-negative, rod-shaped or oval-shaped and motile by the means of polar flagella. They formed faint-yellow, round colonies on marine agar medium. Phylogenetic analyses based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that the strain JLT2006T belonged to the class Gammaproteobacteria and was most closely related to Alteromonas-like bacteria of the genera Psychromonas, Pseudoalteromonas, Moritella, Shewanella and Ferrimonas, with less than 93 % sequence similarity. The predominant fatty acids were identified as C18:1x7c/C18:1x6c (23.0 %), C16:1x7c/C16:1x6c (18.2 %) and C16:0 (16.4 %). The quinone was menaquinone-7 (100 %). The polar lipids were determined to be phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phospholipid, glycolipid and lipid. The genomic DNA G?C content was 40.3 mol%. Based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence as well as the physiological and biochemical features that separate the strain JLT2006T from other recognized bacteria, a novel species of a new genus with the name Coralslurrinella hongkonensis gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is JLT2006T (=JCM 18796T = CGMCC 1.10992T).