Litorilituus sediminis gen. nov. sp. nov., isolated from coastal sediment of an amphioxus breeding zone in Qingdao, China

A Gram-negative, non-spore-forming, catalase- and oxidase-positive, aerobic, curved-rod shaped bacterium with polar or subpolar flagellum, designated strain JYr2^T, was isolated from a sediment sample collected from an amphioxus breeding zone in the coastal region of Qingdao, China. The organism grew optimally at 37 °C, pH 8–9 and in the presence of 3 % (w/v) NaCl or 3–4 % sea salts (w/v; Sigma). Salt was required for growth. The strain contained isoprenoid quinone 8 (Q-8, 100 %) as the predominant isoprenoid quinone and C_16:0 (24.1 %) and C_16:1 ω7c and/or C_16:1 ω6c (35.8 %) as major fatty acids. Phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, aminophospholipid (PN) and two aminolipid (AL1, AL2) were the major constituents of the phospholipids. A phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain JYr2^T formed a distinct evolutionary lineage within the family Colwelliaceae. It showed <95.0 % sequence similarities to all validly published species in the family Colwelliaceae, except 95.2 % to Thalassomonas viridans DSM 13754^T and 95.0 % to Colwellia polaris JCM 537^T. The G+C content of the DNA was 42.7 mol%. On the basis of the polyphasic taxonomic study, strain JYr2^T (= CGMCC 1.10794^T = JCM 17549^T) was considered to represent a novel genus and species in Gammaproteobacteria, for which the name Litorilituus sediminis gen. nov. sp. nov. was proposed.