Clostridium aestuarii sp. nov., from tidal flat sediment

A strictly anaerobic, halophilic, motile, endospore-forming, rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain HY-45-18(T), was isolated from a sediment sample of a tidal flat in Korea. The isolate produced butyric acid, propionic acid, glycerol and H(2) as fermentation end products from glucose. Strain HY-45-18(T) is halophilic as it was unable to grow in the absence of sea salts. A 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis clearly indicated that the tidal flat isolate is a member of cluster I of the order Clostridiales, which contains the type species of Clostridium, Clostridium butyricum. The closest phylogenetic neighbour of strain HY-45-18(T) was Clostridium ganghwense KCTC 5146(T) (96.5 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity). Several phenotypic characteristics can be readily used to differentiate the isolate from phylogenetically related clostridia. Therefore, strain HY-45-18(T) represents a novel species of the genus Clostridium, for which the name Clostridium aestuarii sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is HY-45-18(T) (=IMSNU 40129(T)=KCTC 5147(T)=JCM 13194(T)).