Gramella lutea sp nov., a Novel Species of the Family Flavobacteriaceae Isolated from Marine Sediment

A strictly aerobic, Gram stain-negative, yellowish-orange-pigmented, non-motile, rod-shaped strain designated YJ019(T) was isolated from marine sediment collected at Hwangwooji, a natural pond in Jeju island, Republic of Korea. Preliminary analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that the novel isolate was affiliated with the family Flavobacteriaceae within the phylum Bacteroidetes and that it showed the highest sequence similarity (97.7 %) to Gramella gaetbulicola RA5-111(T). The hybridization values for DNA-DNA relatedness between strain YJ019(T) and the type strains of the five validly described Gramella species were lower than 70 %, which is accepted as the phylogenetic definition of a novel species. The DNA G+C content of strain YJ019(T) was 38.4 mol%. The major menaquinone was MK-6, and iso-C15:0, iso-C17:0 3-OH and summed feature 3 (C16:1 omega 7c and/or C16:1 omega 6c) were the major (> 10 %) cellular fatty acids. A complex polar lipid profile was present consisting of phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified aminophospholipid, two unidentified aminolipids and two unidentified lipids. From the distinct phylogenetic position and combination of genotypic and phenotypic characteristics, the strain is considered to represent a novel species for which the name Gramella lutea sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Gramella lutea sp. nov. is YJ019(T) (=KCTC 42382(T) = NBRC 110751(T)).