Thalassotalea litorea sp. nov., isolated from seashore sand

A novel Gram-stain-negative, aerobic and rod-shaped marine bacterium, designated strain HMF4135T, was isolated from a sand sample which was collected from the seashore of the South Sea, Republic of Korea. It required NaCl for growth and exhibited optimal growth at 30 °C, with 2 % (w/v) NaCl and at pH 7-8. Cellular fatty acids were dominated by C16 : 0, summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c), C16 : 1ω9c and C12 : 0 3-OH. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was ubiquinone-8 (Q-8). Polar lipids consisted of phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine. The DNA G+C content was 41.9 mol%. Phylogeny based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain HMF4135T formed a distinct species-level lineage within the genus Thalassotalea of the class Gammaproteobacteria and was most closely related to Thalassotalea ponticola GJSW-36T (96.4 % similarity). Based on the distinctive phenotypic characteristics and phylogenetic analysis, it is concluded that strain HMF4135T represents a novel species of the genus Thalassotalea, for which the name Thalassotalea litorea sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is HMF4135T (=KCTC 52154T=NBRC 112672T).