A bacterial strain designated RZ02T was isolated from surface seawater collected from the Yellow Sea in PR China and characterized by polyphasic taxonomy. Cells of strain RZ02T were Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile, catalase- and oxidase-positive rods forming ochre-pigmented colonies. Growth occurred at 7-36 °C (optimum, 30 °C), at pH 6.0-9.0 (optimum, pH 7.0) and with 1-5 % (optimum, 2 %) NaCl. The major cellular fatty acids (>10 %) of strain RZ02T were summed feature 8 (C18 : 1 ω6c and/or C18 : 1 ω7c), summed feature 3 (C16 : 1 ω7c and/or C16 : 1 ω6c) and C16 : 0. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, diphosphatidylglycerol and sphingoglycolipid. The genome size of strain RZ02T was 2.79 Mbp with a G+C content of 55.5 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain RZ02T was mostly related to Pontixanthobacter luteolus SW-109T and Pontixanthobacter aestiaquae HDW-31T (97.3 and 97.1% sequence similarity, respectively), and formed a phyletic lineage with members of the genus Pontixanthobacter. The phylogenetic analysis based on the up-to-date bacterial core gene sequences confirmed that strain RZ02T clustered within the genus Pontixanthobacter. The average nucleotide identity and in silico DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain RZ02T and P. luteolus SW-109T and P. aestiaquae HDW-31T were 72.8 and 72.9 % and 18.7 and 18.5%, respectively. Based on these evidences, strain RZ02T is proposed to represent a novel species of the genus Pontixanthobacter under the name Pontixanthobacter rizhaonensis sp. nov. The type strain is RZ02T (=KCTC 62828T=MCCC 1K04521T). In addition, based on the results of whole genome analyses, proposals of Pseudopontixanthobacter gen. nov., Pseudopontixanthobacter confluentis comb. nov. and Pseudopontixanthobacter sediminis comb. nov. are also included.
Keywords: Erythrobacteraceae; Pontixanthobacter; Pontixanthobacter rizhaonensis sp. nov.; Pseudopontixanthobacter gen. nov..