Flagellimonas algarum sp. nov., isolated from dense mats of filamentous algae

A novel Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic, rod-shaped, light-yellow-pigmented, and chemo-organoheterotrophic bacterium, designated DF-77^T, was isolated from dense mats of filamentous algae collected in March 2004 at Okinawa in Japan. The microorganism grew at 0-2.0% NaCl concentrations (w/v), pH 6.0-9.0, and 20-30 °C. The 16S rRNA gene sequence-based phylogenetic tree demonstrated that the strain DF-77^T is a novel member of the family Flavobacteriaceae and was greatly related to Flagellimonas nanhaiensis SM1704^T with sequence similarity of 95.5%. The main fatty acids were iso-C_15:1 G, iso-C_15:0, and iso-C_17:0 3-OH, and the only isoprenoid quinone was menaquinone-6. The dominant polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified aminolipids, an unidentified phosphoaminolipid, and four unidentified lipids. The genome size of strain DF-77^T was 3.60 Mbp with a DNA G + C content of 47.5%. The average nucleotide identity (ANI) value between the genomes of strain DF-77^T and its closely related species was 69.8-70.7%. The digital DNA - DNA hybridization (dDDH) value of strain DF-77^T with the strain of F. nanhaiensis SM1704^T was 16.8%. The genome of the strain DF-77^T revealed that it encoded several genes involved in bio-macromolecule degradation, indicating a high potential for producing industrially useful enzymes. Consequently, the strain is described as a new species in the genus Flagellimonas, for which the name Flagellimonas algarum sp. nov., is proposed with the type strain DF-77^T (= KCTC 72791^T = NBRC 114251^T).