Sulfitobacter maritimus sp. nov., isolated from coastal sediment

A facultatively anaerobic bacterium, strain S0837^T, was isolated from the marine sediment of Jingzi Wharf, Weihai, China. Cells of the novel strain were Gram-stain-negative, non-flagellated, non-gliding, non-pigmented and rod-shaped. Cells were around 0.3-0.5×1.0-1.4 µm in size and often appeared singly. Optimum growth occurred at 33 °C, with 2 % (w/v) NaCl and at pH 7.0-7.5. On the basis of the results of 16S rRNA gene sequences, stain S0837^T had the closest relative with Sulfitobacter delicatus KCTC 32183^T (98.0 %). Genome sequencing revealed a genome size of 3 785 026 bp, a G+C content of 59.8 mol% and several genes related with sulphur oxidation. The strain shared 98.0 % 16S rRNA sequence similarities with closely related type species and shared ANI value below 95-96 %, dDDH value of showed relatedness of 27.4, 25.2 and 25.2 % respectively with the closely related type species. Strain S0837^T had ubiquinone-10 as the sole respiratory quinone, and possessed summed feature 8 (C_18 : 1  ω7c/C_18 : 1  ω6c) as the major fatty acid. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine. According to the results of the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic characterization, phylogenetic properties and genome analysis, strain S0837^T should represent a novel species of the genus Sulfitobacter, for which the name Sulfitobacter maritimus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is S0837^T (=MCCC 1K04635^T=KCTC 72860^T).