Sulfitobacter faviae sp. nov., isolated from the coral Favia veroni

Three closely related, non-sporulating, aerobic, Gram-stain-negative, motile, rod-shaped isolates (S5-53T, S6-62 and S6-64) were obtained from mucus of corals Favia veroni from the Andaman Sea, India. Colonies grown on marine agar were small, circular and cream-coloured. Heterotrophic growth was observed at 10-40 °C and pH 6-10; optimum growth occurred at 25-30 °C and pH 7-8. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis confirmed the isolates belonged to the genus Sulfitobacter and the three isolates shared more than 99 % pairwise sequence similarity. Strain S5-53T shared highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 98.43 % with Sulfitobacter dubius KMM 3554T. DNA-DNA relatedness among the three isolates was above 70 % whereas strain S5-53T showed less than 70 % relatedness with the type strains of closely related species. The DNA G+C content of strain S5-53T was 61 mol%. It contained phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine and diphosphatidylglycerol as major polar lipids. Predominant fatty acids included C18 : 1ω7c, C18 : 1ω7c 11-methyl, C16 : 0 and C10 : 0 3-OH. Q10 was the major respiratory quinone. Based on this polyphasic analysis, the new isolates (S5-53T, S6-62 and S6-64) are considered to represent a novel species of the genus Sulfitobacter, for which the name Sulfitobacter faviae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is S5-53T(=JCM 31093T=LMG 29156T).