Thalassobellus suaedae gen. nov., sp. nov., a marine bacterium of the family Flavobacteriaceae isolated from a halophyte Suaeda japonica

Two Gram-stain-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped and non-gliding bacteria, designated as HL-DH10 T and HL-DH14, were isolated from the halophyte Suaeda japonica in a mudflat, Republic of Korea. Based on the results of 16S rRNA gene pairwise analysis, the two isolates were the members of the family Flavobacteriaceae , and Aestuariibaculum suncheonense SC17 T was the most closely related to strains HL-DH10 T and HL-DH14 with 96.3% and 95.4% sequence similarity, respectively. The average nt identity and digital DNA–DNA hybridization values between strains HL-DH10 T and HL-DH14 and other related species were all less than 79.2% and 21.9%, respectively. The genomic DNA G+C contents of strains HL-DH10 T and HL-DH14 were 32.0% and 31.5%, respectively. Cells of these strains showed optimal growth at 25 °C, pH 6.5–7.0 and 2.5–4.0% (w/v) sea salts. The major respiratory quinone was menaquinone-6. The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C 15:0 (14.0–16.0%), iso-C 15:1 G (10.0–12.0%), iso-C 17:0 3-OH (12.4–13.9%), iso-C 15:0 3-OH (11.8–14.9%) and anteiso-C 15:0 (9.4–10.6%). The polar lipids consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified aminophospholipid, two to three unidentified aminolipids and three unidentified lipids. The comprehensive phylogenetic, genomic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic results indicate that strains HL-DH10 T and HL-DH14 are considered to represent a novel genus of Flavobacteriaceae . Hence, we propose the novel genus Thalassobellus suaedae gen. nov., sp. nov. The type strain is HL-DH10 T (=KCCM 90512 T =JCM 36598 T ).