Polaribacter haliotis sp. nov., isolated from the gut of abalone Haliotis discus hannai

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile and coccoid, ovoid or rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated RA4-7T, was isolated from the gut of an abalone (Haliotis discus hannai) collected from the sea around Jeju island, South Korea, and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. RA4-7T grew optimally at 25 °C, at pH 7.0-7.5 and in the presence of 2.0-3.0 % (w/v) NaCl. The phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that RA4-7T represented a member of the genus Polaribacter. RA4-7T exhibited 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values of 97.64 and 97.23 % to Polaribacter atrinae WP25T and Polaribacter dokdonensis DSW-5T, respectively, and of 93.83-96.99 % to the type strains of the other species of the genus Polaribacter. RA4-7T contained MK-6 as the predominant menaquinone and summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c), iso-C15 : 0 3-OH and iso-C15 : 0as the major fatty acids. The major polar lipids detected in RA4-7T were phosphatidylethanolamine and one unidentified lipid. The DNA G+C content of RA4-7T was 30.5 mol% and its DNA-DNA relatedness values with the type strains of P. atrinae and P. dokdonensis were 16 and 11 %, respectively. Differential phenotypic properties, in combination with its phylogenetic and genetic distinctiveness, revealed that RA4-7T is separated from species of the genus Polaribacter with validly published names. On the basis of the data presented, RA4-7T represented a novel species of the genus Polaribacter, for which the name Polaribacterhaliotis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is RA4-7T (=KCTC 52418T=NBRC 112383T).