Maliponia aquimaris gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from seawater

A Gram-stain-negative, coccoid- or oval-shaped and non-motile bacterial strain, designated MM-10T, belonging to the Alphaproteobacteria, was isolated from seawater of the Yellow Sea, Korea, and was subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. Strain MM-10T grew optimally at pH 7.0-8.0, at 30 °C and in the presence of 2-3 % (w/v) NaCl. Neighbour-joining, maximum-likelihood and maximum-parsimony phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain MM-10T fell within the clade comprising members of the genera Mameliella, Sagittula, Antarctobacter and Ponticoccus. Strain MM-10T exhibited a 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 97.7 % with respect to the type strain of Mameliella alba. The DNA G+C content of strain MM-10T was 66.0 mol% and its mean level of DNA-DNA relatedness with M. alba LMG 24665T was 12.3±1.4 % . Strain MM-10T contained Q-10 as the predominant ubiquinone and C18 : 1ω7c as the major fatty acid. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine. Differential phenotypic properties, together with phylogenetic distinctiveness, demonstrate that strain MM-10T is distinguishable from recognized species of the genera Mameliella, Sagittula and Antarctobacter. On the basis of the data presented, strain MM-10T is considered to represent a novel species of a new genus, for which the name Maliponia aquimaris gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Maliponia aquimaris is MM-10T (=KCTC 42721T=CECT 8898T).