A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile and coccoid, ovoid or rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated GJSW-31(T), was isolated from seawater from the South Sea, South Korea. The novel strain grew optimally at 30 °C, at pH 7.0-8.0 and in the presence of 2.0% (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic trees, based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, revealed that strain GJSW-31(T) clustered with the type strains of species of the genus Litoreibacter. Strain GJSW-31(T) exhibited 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values of 95.2-98.5% to the type strains of species of the genus Litoreibacter and sequence similarities of less than 96.18% to type strains of the other species with validly published names. Strain GJSW-31(T) contained Q-10 as the predominant ubiquinone and C(18:1)ω7c as the major fatty acid. The major polar lipids of strain GJSW-31(T) were phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, one unidentified lipid and one unidentified aminolipid. The DNA G+C content of strain GJSW-31(T) was 62.5 mol% and its DNA-DNA relatedness values with the type strains of Litoreibacter albidus, Litoreibacter janthinus, Litoreibacter meonggei and Litoreibacter ascidiaceicola were 13-23%. The differential phenotypic properties, together with the phylogenetic and genetic distinctiveness, revealed that strain GJSW-31(T) is separate from other species of the genus Litoreibacter. On the basis of the data presented, strain GJSW-31(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Litoreibacter, for which the name Litoreibacter ponti sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is GJSW-31(T) ( =KCTC 42114(T) =NBRC 110379(T)).
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