Shewanella spongiae sp. nov., isolated from marine sponge

Abstract

A psychrotrophic bacterium, strain HJ039T, was isolated from marine sponge collected in the East Sea of Korea. Cells were Gram negative, motile and rod-shaped (1.8- 3.54㎛  0.27-0.73㎛). Growth was observed between 5 & 26℃ (optimum 15℃), at pH 5.0-8.5 (optimum 6.0-6.5) and presence of 0.0-6.0% (optimum 2.0%) NaCl. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain HJ039T showed high similarity (93.7-95.4%) with members of the genus Shewanella, especially with S. gaetbuli TF-27T (95.4%), S. decolorationis S12T (94.9%), S. algae ATCC 51192T (94.7%), S. hafniensis P010T (94.7%), S. putrefaciens LMG26268T (94.6%), and S. fidelis KMM 3582T (94.5%). However, phylogenetic analysis revealed that strain HJ039T shared a phyletic line with S. algae and S. amazonensis. The major respiratory quinone is Q-8. The DNA G+C contents was 52.8 mol%. The major fatty acids were i-15:0 (23.2%), i-15:1 (7.9%), 16:0 (8.7%), 16:1ω7 (21.0%), and 17:1ω8 (6.4%). From this polyphasic taxonomical evidence, strain HJ039T should be identified as a novel species in the genus Shewanella and proposed as the name Shewanella spongiae sp. nov. The type strain is HJ039T (=KCCM42304T).