A Gram-stain-negative bacterium, strain BH-SD19T, that was isolated from a marine sediment sample collected from the Bohai Sea, was subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. Cells of BH-SD19T are non-flagellated, non-gliding, oval-shaped rods, 0.5-1.0 µm wide and 1.0-2.0 µm long. BH-SD19T is strictly aerobic, and oxidase- and catalase-positive. Growth occurs at 15-40 °C (optimum 35 °C), at pH 6.0-8.5 (optimum 7.0-7.5) and with 1-10 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum 2 %). The predominant fatty acids are C19 : 0cyclo ω8c (46.5 %), C16 : 0 (20.3 %) and C18 : 1ω7c and/or C18 : 1ω6c (10.6 %). The major respiratory quinone is Q-10. The major polar lipids are phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and an unidentified phospholipid. The DNA G+C content is 64.0 mol%. BH-SD19T shows the highest 16S rRNA sequence similarity to Pontibaca methylaminivorans (95.2 %) and strains of species of the genus Roseovarius(93.4-95.2 %). Sequence similarity values between BH-SD19T and other phylogenetically related species are all below 95.0 %. Phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicate that BH-SD19T forms a distinct lineage and does not join any known genera in the trees. Phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data indicate that BH-SD19T represents a novel genus and species in the family Rhodobacteraceae, for which the name Pelagivirga sediminicola gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is BH-SD19T (=CCTCC AB 2017074T=KCTC 62202T).
Keywords: Pelagivirga sediminicola gen. nov., sp. nov; marine sediment; novel genus; polyphasic taxonomic.