A novel Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped bacterium, designated as HL-NP1T, was isolated from the surface water of the northwestern Pacific Ocean after enrichment cultivation using the organic phosphorous compound of 2-aminoethylphosphonate. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the strain belonged to the genus Jiella, with the highest similarity to Jiella pacifica 40Bstr34T (98.7 %). The complete genome sequence of strain HL-NP1T comprised a circular chromosome of 5.58 Mbp and two circular plasmids of 0.15 and 0.22 Mbp. Comparison of the genome sequences between strains HL-NP1T and J. pacifica 40Bstr34T revealed that average nucleotide identity, average amino acid identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values (88.0, 86.4 and 33.9 %, respectively) were below the recommended cut-off levels for delineating bacterial species. Strain HL-NP1T showed optimal growth at 30 °C, pH 6.5-7.0, with 2.0-2.5 % (w/v) NaCl. The sole respiratory quinone was ubiquinone-10. The predominant fatty acid was summed feature 8 (C18 : 1 ω6c and/or C18 : 1 ω7c). The polar lipids comprised diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine, an unidentified aminolipid and four unidentified lipids. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 65.1 %. Based on phylogenetic, genotypic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic data, strain HL-NP1T is proposed to represent a novel species of the genus Jiella, for which the name Jiella pelagia sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is HL-NP1T (= KCCM 90499T = JCM 35838T).
Keywords: Jiella pelagia; new species; northwestern Pacific Ocean; phosphonate.