Downloaded from www.microbiologyresearch.org by IP: 54.70.40.11 On: Sat, 08 Dec 2018 00:40:44 Ponticoccus marisrubri sp. nov., a moderately halophilic marine bacterium of the family Rhodobacteraceae Guishan Zhang, 1,2 Mohamed Fauzi Haroon, 1 Ruifu Zhang, 2 Xiaoyan Dong, 2 Di Liu, 2 Qin Xiong, 2 Weibing Xun, 2 Xiuzhu Dong 3 and Ulrich Stingl 1,4, * Abstract Strain SJ5A-1 T , a Gram-stain-negative, coccus-shaped, non-motile, aerobic bacterium, was isolated from the brine–seawater interface of the Erba Deep in the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia. The colonies of strain SJ5A-1 T have a beige to pale-brown pigmentation, are approximately 0.5–0.7 μm in diameter, and are catalase and oxidase positive. Growth occurred optimally at 30–33  C, pH 7.0–7.5, and in the presence of 9.0–12.0 % NaCl (w/v). Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene indicates that strain SJ5A-1 T is a member of the genus Ponticoccus within the family Rhodobacteraceae. Ponticoccus litoralis DSM 18986 T is the most closely related described species based on 16S rRNA gene sequence identity (96.7 %). The DNA–DNA hybridization value between strain SJ5A-1 T and P. litoralis DSM 18986 T was 36.7 %. The major respiratory quinone of strain SJ5A-1 T is Q-10; it predominantly uses the fatty acids C 18 : 1 (54.2 %), C 18 : 0 (11.2 %), C 16 : 0 (8.6 %), 11-methyl C 18 : 1 !7c (7.7 %), C 19 : 0 cyclo !8c (3.3 %), and C 12 : 1 3-OH (3.5 %), and its major polar lipids are phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphocholine, an unknown aminolipid, an unknown phospholipid and two unknown lipids. The genome draft of strain SJ5A-1 T as presented here is 4 562 830 bp in size and the DNA G+C content is 68.0 mol%. Based on phenotypic, phylogenetic and genotypic data, strain SJ5A-1 T represents a novel species in the genus Ponticoccus, for which we propose the name Ponticoccus marisrubri sp. nov. The type strain of P. marisrubri is SJ5A-1 T (=JCM 19520 T =ACCC19863 T ). Bacteria of the Roseobacter clade, as described [1], form a major lineage belonging to the family Rhodobacteraceae within the class Alphaproteobacteria [2]. Bacterial species of this clade are widespread in marine environments and have been isolated from a large variety of habitats, such as seawa- ter, sea ice, marine sediment, marine algae, hypersaline microbial mats, marine biofilms and marine invertebrates [3–7]. They have a great diversity of physiological proper- ties, which enable them to use a variety of organic matter in marine ecosystems. For example, some species have the ability to degrade lignin, use organic sulfur compounds including dimethylsulfoniopropionate, perform aerobic anoxygenic photosynthesis, aerobically oxidize sulfites, use carbon monoxide, produce antibiotics, or are methylotro- phic [3, 6, 8]. Therefore, members of this clade play import- ant roles in oceanic biogeochemical cycles. Hence, isolation and characterization of members of this group are import- ant to extend our understanding of marine bacterial ecology and physiology [9]. Currently, there are two recognized spe- cies of Ponticoccus in the family Rhodobacteraceae: Ponti- coccus litoralis DSM 18986 T [10] and Ponticoccus lacteus CGMCC 1.12986 T [7]. In the Red Sea, approximately 25 deep-sea brine pools have been reported [11]. These unusual environments represent some of the most extreme environments on Earth and are characterized by high salinity, high concentrations of heavy metals, and steep salinity gradients with the overlying sea- water. Previous studies have shown that the Red Sea brine pools harbour an unusual array of micro-organisms, includ- ing some novel phyla only found in brine pools [12]. In this paper, we describe the isolation and characterization of a novel moderately halophilic strain from the Erba Deep brine–seawater interface. Strain SJ5A-1 T represents a novel species belonging to the genus Ponticoccus within the family Rhodobacteraceae. Author affiliations: 1 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Red Sea Research Center, Thuwal 23955–6900, Saudi Arabia; 2 Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources Collection and Preservation, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, PR China; 3 State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, PR China; 4 Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, University of Florida, Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, Fort Lauderdale (Davie), FL33314, USA. *Correspondence: Ulrich Stingl, ustingl@ufl.edu or ulistingl@gmail.com Keywords: marine bacteria; Ponticoccus marisrubri; Rhodobacteraceae; brine pool. The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene of Ponticoccus marisrubri sp. nov. strain SJ5A-1 T is KP726358. The whole- genome shotgun project for strain SJ5A-1 T was deposited at GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ under the accession number LPXO00000000.1. Five supplementary figures are available with the online Supplementary Material. TAXONOMIC DESCRIPTION Zhang et al., Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2017;67:4358–4364 DOI 10.1099/ijsem.0.002280 002280 ã 2017 IUMS 4358