Marinobacter pelagius sp. nov., a moderately halophilic bacterium

A Gram-negative, aerobic, neutrophilic, moderately halophilic bacterial strain, HS225^T, was isolated from seawater samples around the Zhoushan Archipelago, Zhejiang Province, China. The isolate grew optimally in media with 5.0 % NaCl, at pH 7.0-8.0 and at 25-30 °C. The predominant fatty acids were C_16:0ω9c, C_16:0, C_12:0 3-OH and C_18:1ω9c. The genomic DNA G + C content was 59.0 mol%. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, the isolate was found to be affiliated to the genus Marinobacter. Strain HS225^T exhibited closest phylogenetic affinity to Marinobacter koreensis DD-M3^T (98.1% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity). DNA-DNA relatedness data and DNA G + C contents as well as physiological and biochemical test results allowed the genotypic and phenotypic differentiation of strain HS225^T from closely related species. Therefore, it is proposed that strain HS225^T represents a novel species of the genus Marinobacter, for which the name Marinobacter pelagius sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is HS225^T (=CGMCC 1.6775^T =JCM 14804^T).