Isolation and Characterization of Paracoccus maritimus sp. nov., from Intertidal Sediment

A novel Paracoccus-related strain, designated YLB-12^T, was isolated from a sediment sample from the tidal zone of Shapowei Port, Xiamen, Fujian Province, PR China. The novel strain is a Gram-stain-negative, short, rod-shaped, nonmotile, catalase- and oxidase-positive strain that grows at 10-37 °C and pH 5.0-9.0 in the presence of 0-12.0% (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that this strain belongs to the genus Paracoccus and that its highest sequence similarity was to Paracoccus homiensis DD-R11^T (98.5%), followed by Paracoccus zeaxanthinifaciens ATCC 21588^T (97.4%), Paracoccus rhizosphaerae LMG 26205^T (97.2%), Paracoccus beibuensis CGMCC 1.7295^T (97.1%) and Paracoccus halotolerans CFH 90064^T (97.0%). The DNA‒DNA hybridization values between strain YLB-12^T and the five closely related type strains ranged from 20.4 to 22.4%. The genomic G+C content of strain YLB-12^T was 63.7%. In addition to diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylglycerol, the polar lipids of the strain YLB-12^T also consisted of an unidentified glycolipid and four unidentified polar lipids. The cells contained summed feature 8 (C_{18: 1}ω6c /C_{18: 1}ω7c, 62.7%) as the major cellular fatty acid and ubiquinone-10 as the predominant menaquinone. On the basis of its phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, strain YLB-12^T represents a novel species within the genus Paracoccus, for which the name Paracoccus maritimus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain was YLB-12^T (= MCCC 1A17213^T = KCTC 82197^T).