Deinococcus planocerae sp. nov., isolated from a marine flatworm

A Gram-positive, non-motile and coccoid strain, designated XY-FW106T, was isolated from a marine flatworm identified to be Planocera sp. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of this pink organism was consistent with membership of the genus Deinococcus, with high sequence similarity to Deinococcus aetherius ST0316T (94.7%). The optimum growth temperature range of the strain XY-FW106T was found to be 25–30 °C and optimum growth occurs at pH 7.2–7.4 without NaCl. The strain XY-FW106T was found to contain unidentified glycolipids, unidentified phosphoglycolipids, unidentified phospholipids and unidentified lipids, which differed from those of closely related species. Menaquinone MK-8 was identified as the major respiratory quinone and the predominant cellular fatty acids were found to be Summed Feature 3 (C16:1ω7c/C16:1ω6c), C16:0, iso-C15:0, and Summed Feature 8 (C18:1ω7c/C18:1ω6c). The DNA G+C content was determined to be 70.2 mol%. The biochemical and chemotaxonomic data together suggest that the strain represents a new species for which the name Deinococcus planocerae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is XY-FW106T (=MCCC 1K01499T=KCTC 33809T).