Marimicrobium arenosum gen. nov., sp. nov., a moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from sea sand

A Gram-stain-negative, non-pigmented, non-spore-forming, non-motile, strictly aerobic bacterial strain, designated CAU 1038T, was isolated from a sea sand sample in Modo, Republic of Korea, and its taxonomic position was examined using a polyphasic approach. Cells of strain CAU 1038T grew optimally at 30 °C, pH 7.5 in 2 % (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain CAU 1038T formed a distinct lineage within the class Gammaproteobacteria as a separate deep branch, with 95.2 % or lower sequence similarity to representatives of the genera Haliea, Halioglobus and Chromatocurvus, and 92.3 % or lower with Luminiphilus, Pseudohaliea and Congregibacter. The major cellular fatty acids of strain CAU 1038T were C16 : 0, C16 : 1ω7c and C18 : 1ω7c. The polar lipid pattern of the isolate consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, an unidentified aminolipid and two unidentified lipids. The strain contained lipoquinone (Q-8) as the sole respiratory quinone. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 65 mol%. On the basis of phenotypic and chemotaxonomic data, and phylogenetic inference, strain CAU 1038T represents a novel species of a new genus in the family Halieaceae, for which the name Marimicrobium arenosum gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of the type species is CAU 1038T ( = KCTC 42300T = NBRC 110727T).