Maribacter caenipelagi sp. nov., a member of the Flavobacteriaceae isolated from a tidal flat sediment of the Yellow Sea in Korea

A Gram-strain negative, rod-shaped and gliding bacterial strain, designated HD-44^T, was isolated from a tidal flat sediment in the Korean peninsula. Strain HD-44^T was found to grow optimally at pH 7.0–8.0, at 25° C and in the presence of 2–3 % (w/v) NaCl. A neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain HD-44^T falls within the clade comprising the Maribacter species, clustering with the type strains of Maribacter aquivivus, Maribacter ulvicola, Maribacter stanieri, Maribacter dokdonensis, Maribacter orientalis, Maribacter forsetii, Maribacter arcticus and Maribacter sedimenticola, with which it exhibits 97.1–98.3 % sequence similarity values. Sequence similarities to the type strains of the other recognized Maribacter species are 95.6–96.8 %. Strain HD-44^T was found to contain MK-6 as the predominant menaquinone and iso-C_17:0 3-OH, iso-C_15:1 G, iso-C_15:0 and summed feature 3 (C_16:1 ω6c and/or C_16:1 ω7c) as the major fatty acids. The major polar lipids were identified as phosphatidylethanolamine and two unidentified lipids. The DNA G+C content of strain HD-44^T was determined to be 37.6 mol% and its mean DNA–DNA relatedness values with M. aquivivus KCTC 12968^T, M. ulvicola KCTC 12969^T, M. stanieri KCTC 22023^T, M. dokdonensis DSW-8^T, M. orientalis KCTC 12967^T, M. forsetii KT02ds18-6^T, M. arcticus KCTC 22053^T and M. sedimenticola KCTC 12966^T were 27.7–8.0 %. Differential phenotypic properties, together with the phylogenetic and genetic distinctiveness, revealed that strain HD-44^T is distinguishable from recognized Maribacter species. On the basis of the data presented, strain HD-44^T is proposed to represent a novel species of the genus Maribacter, for which the name Maribacter caenipelagi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is HD-44^T (= KCTC 32549^T = CECT 8455^T).