Loktanella tamlensis sp. nov., isolated from seawater

An aerobic, Gram-reaction-negative, chemo-organotrophic bacterium, designated strain SSW-35(T), was isolated from seawater in Jeju, Republic of Korea. Cells were motile, short rods; colonies were circular, smooth, convex, translucent and beige in colour. No diffusible pigment formed on any of the media tested. The bacterium grew at 4-30 °C and pH 7.1-10.1. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the organism was related to members of the genus Loktanella, its closest recognized relatives being Loktanella rosea Fg36(T) (98.1% sequence similarity) and Loktanella maricola DSW-18(T) (97.8%). Levels of 16S rRNA gene similarity between strain SSW-35(T) and other recognized species of the genus Loktanella were all <97%. Polar lipid analysis revealed the presence of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and an unknown lipid as major components, as well as small amounts of two unknown phospholipids. The predominant ubiquinone was Q-10. The major cellular fatty acid was C(18:1) (summed feature 7), and the 3-hydroxy fatty acids detected were C(12:1) 3-OH and C(10:0) 3-OH. The genomic DNA G+C content was 55.0 mol%. In DNA-DNA hybridization experiments, the relatedness values between strain SSW-35(T) and the type strains of the phylogenetically closest recognized species were all <11%. On the basis of the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, phylogenetic analysis and DNA-DNA relatedness, a novel species, Loktanella tamlensis sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is SSW-35(T) (=KCTC 12722(T)=JCM 14020(T)).