Erythrobacter aurantius sp. nov., isolated from intertidal seawater in Taizhou

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, chemoheterotrophic and rod-shaped strain, designated as C5^T, was isolated from intertidal surface seawater in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, PR China and characterized using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Strain C5^T could produce carotenoids and bacteriochlorophyll a. Growth was observed at 20-45 °C, at pH 6.0-9.0 and with 0-8.0 % (w/v) NaCl. The 16S rRNA gene sequence identity analysis revealed that strain C5^T was the most closely related to Qipengyuania nanhaisediminis CGMCC 1.7715^T (98.8%) and Erythrobacter litoralis DSM 8509^T (98.7%). The phylogenetic reconstruction based on core genes demonstrated that strain C5^T was clustered into the members of the genus Erythrobacter. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain C5^T and Erythrobacter type strains were lower than 76 and 25 %, respectively. The predominant and minor respiratory quinones were identified as ubiquinone-10 and ubiquinone-9. The major fatty acids were summed feature 8 (C_18 : 1  ω7c and/or C_18 : 1  ω6c) and iso-C_18 : 0. Polar lipids included phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, a glycosphingolipid and an unidentified aminolipid. Based on the genetic, chemotaxonomic and phenotypic data, strain C5^T is concluded to represent a novel species in the genus Erythrobacter, for which the name Erythrobacter aurantius sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is C5^T (=MCCC 1K05108^T=KCTC 92307^T).