Pontibacter saemangeumensis sp nov., isolated from seawater

A Gram-negative, rod-shaped, non-motile and pink bacterial strain, designated strain GCM0142(T), was isolated from the confined seawater in the Saemangeum Tide Embankment of South Korea, and characterized using a polyphasic approach. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis of strain GCM0142(T) indicated that the isolate belonged to the phylum Bacteroidetes and exhibited similarity levels of 94.0-96.4% to the type strains of recognized Pontibacter species. Strain GCM0142(T) was oxidase- and catalase-positive. The major cellular fatty acids of the novel strain were summed feature 4 (comprising iso-C17:1I and/or anteiso-C17:1B, 36.8%), iso-C-(15:0) (22.3%) and summed feature 3 (comprising C-16:1 omega 7c and/or C-16:1 omega 6c, 6.2%). The DNA G+C content of strain GCM0142(T) was 48.9 mol% and the major quinone was MK-7. The polar lipid profile consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, two unknown aminolipids (AL1-2), an unknown aminophospholipid, five unknown lipids (L1-5) and an unknown glycolipid. On the basis of the evidence presented, strain GCM0142(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Pontibacter, for which the name Pontibacter saemangeumensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is GCM0142(T) (=KACC 16448(T)=JCM 17926(T)).