Maribacter luteus sp. nov., a marine bacterium isolated from intertidal sand of the Yellow Sea

A novel rod-shaped and Gram-stain-negative bacterium, designated strain RZ05 T , was isolated from a sand sample collected from the intertidal zone of the Yellow Sea, PR China. Results of phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain RZ05 T clusters within the genus Maribacter , a member of the family Flavobacteriaceae , and has the highest sequence similarity to Maribacter polysiphoniae KCTC 22021 T (97.8 %), followed by Maribacter arenosus KCTC 52191 T (97.2 %). Cells of this strain were observed to be aerobic, oxidase- and catalase-positive, motile by gliding and formed yellow colonies. Growth occurred at 7–40 °C (optimum, 30 °C), at pH 6.5–9.5 (optimum, pH 7.0) and with 0.5–6 % (optimum, 2 %) NaCl. Its polar lipid profile included phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified glycolipids, one unidentified aminolipid and four unidentified lipids. The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C 15 : 0 , iso-C 15 : 1 G, iso-C 17 : 0 3-OH, iso-C 16 : 0 3-OH, iso-C 15 : 0 3-OH, summed feature 9 (10-methyl C 16 : 0 /iso-C 17 : 1   ω9 c ) and summed feature 3 (iso-C 15 : 0 2-OH/C 16 : 1   ω7 c /C 16 : 1   ω6 c ). The only respiratory quinone was menaquinone 6 (MK-6). The genome of strain RZ05 T was 4.65 Mbp with a G+C content of 38.9 mol%. The average nucleotide identity and in silico DNA–DNA hybridization values between strain RZ05 T and its most closely related type strain M. polysiphoniae KCTC 22021 T were 80.3 and 26.3  %, respectively. The results of phylogenetic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic analyses indicated that strain RZ05 T represents a novel species of the genus Maribacter , for which the name Maribacter luteus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is RZ05 T (=KCTC 62834 T =MCCC 1K03617 T ).