Kocuria oceani sp. nov., isolated from a deep-sea hydrothermal plume

Three strains, FXJ8.095T, FXJ8.057 and H201, were isolated from deep-sea hydrothermal plume water collected at the Southwest Indian Ridge at a depth of 2800 m. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the isolates formed a closely related subcluster within the genus Kocuria. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain FXJ8.095T shared 99.90 and 99.60 % similarity with those of strains FXJ8.057 and H201, respectively, and 98.81, 98.75, 98.68 and 98.10 % with those of 'Kocuria sediminis' JCM 17929, Kocuria flava HO-9041T, Kocuria turfanensis HO-9042T and Kocuria rosea JCM 11614T, respectively. DNA-DNA hybridization values among the three new isolates were higher than 70 %, while the values between each of the isolates and the closely related type strains were well below 70 %. Random amplified polymorphic DNA fingerprint patterns and a combination of physiological and biochemical properties also distinguished the isolates from the related species. The major cellular fatty acids of the isolates were anteiso-C15 : 0 and iso-C15 : 0, the predominant menaquinones were MK-7(H2) and MK-8(H2), and the main polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylglycerol. The DNA G+C contents of strains FXJ8.095T, FXJ8.057 and H201 were 75.6, 72.8 and 70.4 mol%, respectively. Based on the phylogenetic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic data, we propose to classify the three strains in a novel species named Kocuria oceani sp. nov., with FXJ8.095T (=CGMCC 4.6946T=DSM 24949T) as the type strain.