Kocuria coralli sp. nov., a novel actinobacterium isolated from coral reef seawater

An actinobacterial strain, SCSIO 13007^T, was isolated from seawater collected from the Luhuitou fringing reef at a depth of 4.2 m. Phylogenetic and phenotypic properties of the organism supported the hypothesis that it represented a member of the genus Kocuria. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the levels of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity between SCSIO 13007^T and type strains of other recognized members of the genus Kocuria were lower than 96.99 %. Growth in the presence of up to 15 % (w/v) NaCl was a distinctive characteristic of SCSIO 13007^T. Other biochemical and physiological properties and the major fatty acids also differentiated the isolate from its phylogenetically closest relative Kocuria subflava YIM 13062^T. The menaquinone types were MK-7(H₂) and MK-8(H₂). Major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C_15 : 0, iso-C_15 : 0 and anteiso-C_17 : 0. The polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, an unidentified lipid and an unidentified aminolipid. The DNA G+C content was 73.7 mol%. The combined genotypic and phenotypic data indicated that strain SCSIO 13007^T represents a novel species of the genus Kocuria, for which the name Kocuria coralli sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain is SCSIO 13007^T (=DSM 27811^T=NBRC 109942^T).