Vibrio ponticus sp. nov., a neighbour of V fluvialis-V. furnissii clade, isolated from gilthead sea bream, mussels and seawater

A new Vibrio species, Vibrio ponticus, is proposed to accommodate four marine bacteria isolated from sea water, mussels and diseased sea bream (Sparus aurata), at the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Strains are Gram negative, slightly halophilic bacteria that require Na+ ion for growth, oxidase and catalase positive, negative for arginine dihydrolase and ornithine decarboxylase but positive for lysine decarboxylase and indole, and utilize beta-hydroxybutyrate as a sole carbon source. Phylogenetic analysis locate these marine bacteria in the vicinity of the V. fluvialis-V. furnissii clade, sharing with these two species 16S rDNA sequence similarities slightly above 97% (97.1 and 97.3%, respectively). DNA-DNA hybridisation values confirm that the four strains form a genospecies and represent a new species in the genus Vibrio. We propose strain 369T (CECT 5869T, DSM 16217T) as the type strain.