Proposal of Litorimonas haliclonae sp nov., isolated from a marine sponge of the genus Haliclona

A bright-orange-pigmented, Gram-stain-negative, motile, and rod-shaped bacterium, strain MAA42(T), was isolated from a marine sponge of the genus Haliclona, which is in long-time culture in a marine aquarium system at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany. The strain grew at 4-34 degrees C (optimum 28 degrees C), in the presence of 0.5-9.5% (w/v) NaCl (optimum 3.5 %) and at pH 4.5-10.0 (optimum pH 7.5). Strain MAA42(T) shared the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (98.1 %) with the type strain of Litorimonas taeanensis. Sequence similarities to all other closely related type strains were below 97 %. DNA-DNA hybridization of strain MAA42(T) with L. taeanensis DSM 22008(T) resulted in values of 4.7% (reciprocal 17.7%). Major cellular fatty acids of strain MAA42(T) were C-18( : 1) omega 7c (66.2 %), C-18 : 1 2-OH (17.4 %), and C-18(:0) (14.1 %). Spermidine was predominant in the polyamine pattern, and ubiquinone 0-10 was the major respiratory quinone. The polar lipid profile contained the major compounds phosphatidylglycerol, monoglycosyldiglyceride, three unidentified phospholipids, and one unidentified glycolipid. Glucuronopyranosyldiglyceride was present as a minor compound. The diagnostic diamino acid of the peptidoglycan was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The genomic DNA G+C content was 52.8 mol%. Based on the genotypic, chemotaxonomic, and phenotypic analyses, strain MAA42(T) represents a novel species of the genus Litorimonas, for which the name Litorimonas haliclonae is proposed. The type strain is MAA42(T) (=CCM 8709(T)=CIP 111178(T)=LMG 29765(T)).