Arenibacter hampyeongensis sp. nov., a marine bacterium isolated from a tidal flat

A Gram-staining-negative, dark orange, strictly aerobic bacterium, designated strain HP12(T), was isolated from a tidal flat at Hampyeong in South Korea. Cells were moderately halotolerant, catalase- and oxidase-positive, non-motile rods. Growth was observed at 5-35 °C (optimum, 25 °C), at pH 6.0-8.5 (optimum, pH 7.0-7.5), and in the presence of 1-6 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 1-2 %). The major cellular fatty acids were summed feature 3 (C(16 : 1)ω7c and/or iso-C(15 : 0) 2-OH), iso-C(17 : 0) 3-OH, C(15 : 0), iso-C(15 : 1) G and iso-C(15 : 0). The polar lipid pattern indicated the presence of phosphatidylethanolamine and two unidentified lipids. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 37.1 mol% and the predominant respiratory quinone was menaquinone-6. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the novel strain formed a tight phyletic lineage with members of the genus Arenibacter and was most closely related to Arenibacter palladensis KMM 3961(T), Arenibacter troitsensis KMM 3674(T) and Arenibacter echinorum KMM 6032(T), with 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of 98.1 %, 98.0 % and 97.8 %, respectively. However, the DNA-DNA relatedness values between strain HP12(T) and A. palladensis JCM 13509(T), A. troitsensis KCTC 12362(T) and A. echinorum KCTC 22013(T) were only 20.2±0.3 %, 22.6±0.6 % and 9.1±2.6 %, respectively. On the basis of phenotypic and molecular features, strain HP12(T) represents a novel species of the genus Arenibacter, for which the name Arenibacter hampyeongensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is HP12(T) ( = KACC 16193(T) = JCM 17788(T)).