Corallibacterium pacifica gen. nov., sp nov., a Novel Bacterium of the Family Vibrionaceae Isolated from Hard Coral

A gram-negative, rod-shaped, motile, oxidase- and catalase-positive, non-pigmented marine bacterium, designated strain OS-11M-2(T), was isolated from a coral sample collected from the Osakura coastal area in Micronesia. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequences indicated that strain OS-11M-2(T) is a member of the family Vibrionaceae, its closest neighbors being Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida NCIMB 2058(T) (94.9%), Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae CIP 102761(T) (94.75%), Grimontia marina IMCC5001(T) (94.5%), Enterovibrio coralii LMG 22228(T) (94.5%), and Grimontia celer 96-237(T) (94.5%). The major cellular fatty acids were summed feature 3 (21.4%), summed feature 8 (18.5%), iso-C-16:0 (13.8%), and C-16:0 (11.9%). The major respiratory quinone of the bacterium was ubiquinone-8 (Q-8) and its major polar lipid phosphatidylethanolamine. Six amino lipids, two phospholipids, and one polar lipid, all unidentified, were detected. The DNA G+C content was 49.7 mol%. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of OS-11M-2(T) was registered in GenBank under accession number MF359550. On the basis of phenotypic, genotypic, and phylogenetic analyses, strain OS-11M-2(T) represents a novel genus of the family Vibrionaceae, for which we propose the name Corallibacterium pacifica gen. nov., sp. nov., with the type strain of the type species being OS-11M-2(T) (= KCCM 43265(T)). The digital protologue database (DPD) taxon number for strain OS-11M-2T is GA00041.