A novel Gram-negative, orange pigmented, strictly aerobic bacterium, designated strain IP9T, was isolated from seawater at the sea shore of Incheon Eulwang-ri beach, South Korea. Cells of strain IP9T were observed to be straight or slightly curved rods and colonies to be round and convex. Strain IP9T was found to be catalase and oxidase positive, and non-motile. Growth was observed in the temperature range of 10-37 °C (optimum at 30 °C), pH range of 6-10 (optimum at pH 7-8) and salt concentration range of 0-7% (w/v) NaCl (optimum at 0-1%). On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity and phylogenetic analysis, strain IP9T was found to be related to the members of the family Flavobacteriaceae, being closely related to Hwangdonia seohaensis KCTC 32177T (95.3% sequence similarity). The DNA G + C content of the novel strain was determined to be 39.1 mol%. The major polar lipids were found to be phosphatidylethanolamine, three unidentified aminoglycolipids and two unidentified glycolipids. The major fatty acids (> 10%) were identified as iso-C15:0 and iso-C17:0 3-OH. The predominant quinone was found to be menaquinone 6 (MK-6). Based on the biochemical, phylogenetic and physiological data, we conclude that strain IP9T (= KCTC 52523T = JCM 31732T) represents the type species of a novel genus of the family Flavobacteriaceae for which the name Thalassorhabdus aurantiaca gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed.
Keywords: Flavobacteriaceae; Novel genus; Novel species; Thalassorhabdus.