Blastomonas marina sp nov., a bacteriochlorophyll-containing bacterium isolated from seawater

A Gram-stain-negative, facultatively anaerobic, dark-yellow-pigmented bacterium, named SSR2A-4-2(T), was isolated from coastal water in the East China Sea. Cells were ovoid or short rods with peritrichous flagella and contained carotenoid in addition to bacteriochlorophyll a pigment. A phylogenetic dendrogram based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain SSR2A-4-2(T) formed a distinct clade with members of the genus Blastomonas, with Blastomonas natatoria EY 4220(T) (= DSM 3183(T)) (similarity 95.6 %), Blastomonas ursincola KR-99(T) (= DSM 9006(T)) (95.5 %) and Blastomonas aquatica PE4-5(T) (= JCM 30179(T)) (94.8 %) as its closest phylogenetic relatives. Q-10 was the predominant respiratory quinone. The major fatty acids were summed feature 8 (C-18 : 1 omega 6c and/or C-18 : 1 omega 7c), summed feature 3 (C-16 : 1 omega 6c and/or C-16 : 1 omega 7c), C-17 : 1 omega 6c and C-18 : 1 omega 7c 11-methyl. The polar lipids contained diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, sphingoglycolipid, four unknown glycolipids and one unknown lipid. The DNA G+ C content was 65.1 mol%. On the basis of the evidence presented in this study, strain SSR2A-4-2(T) represents a novel species of the genus Blastomonas, for which the name Blastomonas marina sp. nov. is proposed, with strain SSR2A-4-2(T) (= CGMCC 1.15297(T) = DSM 103453(T)) as the type strain.