A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, yellow-pigmented and non-motile rod-shaped bacterium, designated as GrpM-11T, was isolated from coastal seawater collected from the East Sea, Republic of Korea. Strain GrpM-11T could grow at 10-40 °C (optimum, 35 °C), at pH 5.5-9.5 (optimum, pH 7.0) and in the presence of 0-8 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 3-4 %). Cells hydrolysed aesculin, gelatin and casein, but could not reduce nitrate to nitrite. The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that this strain formed a distinct phylogenic lineage with Parasphingopyxis algicola ATAX6-5T (96.2 % sequence identity) and Parasphingopyxis lamellibrachiae DSM 26725T (96.2 % identity) and belonged to the genus Parasphingopyxis. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was ubiquinone-10. The polar lipid profile of strain GrpM-11T consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, sphingoglycolipid and three unknown glycolipids. Cellular fatty acid analysis indicated that summed feature 8 (C18 : 1 ω7c and/or C18 : 1 ω6c; 42.8 %), C16 : 0 (19.0 %), C18 : 1 ω7c 11-methyl (13.3 %) and C18 : 1 ω7c (8.0 %) were the major fatty acids. The DNA G+C content of strain GrpM-11T was 63.7 mol%. Through whole genome sequence comparisons, the digital DNA-DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity values between strain GrpM-11T and two species of the genus Parasphingopyxis were revealed to be in the ranges of 19.0-22.0 % and 76.3-79.7 %, respectively. Based on the results of polyphasic analysis, strain GrpM-11T represents a novel species of the genus Parasphingopyxis, for which the name Parasphingopyxis marina sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is GrpM-11T (KCCM 43343T=JCM 34665T).
Keywords: East Sea; Parasphingopyxis marina sp. nov.; Republic of Korea; costal seawater.