A Gram-strain-negative, rod-shaped, aerobic bacterium, designated 216_PA32_1T, was isolated from deep-sea sediment of the Pacific Ocean. Cells of strain 216_PA32_1T were non-motile, oxidase-positive and catalase-negative. The strain could grow at temperatures of 10-45 °C (optimum, 32-35 °C), at pH 5.0-10.0 (optimum, 6.0-7.0) and at salinities of 0-10% (optimum, 2-8%). The principal fatty acid (>10 %) was summed feature 8 (C18:1 ω6c/ω7c). The sole respiratory quinone was Q10 (100 %). The polar lipids included phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine, two unidentified phospholipids and five unidentified aminolipids. The G+C content of the chromosomal DNA was 66.3 mol%. According to the 16S rRNA gene similarity, strain 216_PA32_1T showed the highest sequence similarity to Pseudooceanicola nitratireducens JLT 1210T (97.3 %), followed by Pseudooceanicola nanhaiensis SS011B1-20T (97.1 %). Phylogenetic trees indicated that strain 216_PA32_1T clustered with strain P. nanhaiensis SS011B1-20T. The average nucleotide identity and the DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain 216_PA32_1T and all species of the genus Pseudooceanicola were below 79.5 and 20.6%, respectively. A combination of the phylogenetic, phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and genomic evidence demonstrated that strain 216_PA32_1T represents a novel species of the genus Pseudooceanicola, for which the name Pseudooceanicola pacificus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 216_PA32_1T (=MCCC 1A14128T=KCTC 72688T).
Keywords: Pacific Ocean; Pseudooceanicola pacificus sp. nov.; deep-sea sediment; taxonomy.