Loktanella ponticola sp. nov., isolated from seawater

A Gram-reaction-negative, aerobic, non-flagellated and coccoid, ovoid or rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated W-SW2(T), was isolated from seawater in the South Sea of South Korea. The novel strain grew optimally at pH 7.0-8.0, at 25 °C and in the presence of approximately 2% (w/v) NaCl. A neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain W-SW2(T) fell within the clade comprising the type strains of species of the genus Loktanella, clustering and sharing the highest sequence similarity value (96.3%) with the type strain of Loktanella koreensis. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values between strain W-SW2(T) and the type strains of the other species of the genus Loktanella were in the range 93.1-96.0%. The DNA G+C content of strain W-SW2(T) was 55.9 mol%. Strain W-SW2(T) contained Q-10 as the predominant ubiquinone and C(18:1)ω7c as the predominant fatty acid. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, one unidentified aminolipid and one unidentified lipid. Differential phenotypic properties, together with the phylogenetic distinctiveness, revealed that strain W-SW2(T) is separated phylogenetically from other species of the genus Loktanella. On the basis of the data presented, strain W-SW2(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Loktanella, for which the name Loktanella ponticola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is W-SW2(T) ( =KCTC 42133(T) =NBRC 110409(T)).