Maribellus maritimus sp. nov., isolated from marine sediment

A novel facultatively anaerobic and Gram-stain-negative bacterial strain, designated 5E3^T, was isolated from intertidal sediments of Xiaoshi Island of Weihai, People's Republic of China. Cells of strain 5E3^T were long rod-shaped with widths of 0.3-0.5 μm and lengths of 4.0-6.0 μm. Optimum growth of strain 5E3^T occurred at 33 °C, pH 6.5-7.0 and with 3% (w/v) NaCl. Oxidase activity was negative but catalase activity was weakly positive. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that strain 5E3^T was most closely related to 'Maribellus comscasis' WC007 (99.5%), followed by M. sediminis MCCC 1K04285^T (95.9%) and M. luteus XSD2^T (95.6%). Genome comparisons between strain 5E3^T and strain 'M. comscasis' WC007, using average nucleotide identity (ANI) value (93.0%) and DNA-DNA hybridization (DDH) value (50.1%), confirmed low genome relatedness. The major cellular fatty acids (≥ 10%) were iso-C_15:0 and iso-C_17:0 3-OH. The sole respiratory quinone was MK-7. The polar lipids consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), one unidentified aminolipid (AL) and three unidentified lipids (L1, L2, L3). The DNA G + C content was 37.9 mol%. According to the integrated results of phylogenetic, physiological, biochemical and chemotaxonomic characteristics, we propose that strain 5E3^T represents a novel species of the genus Maribellus, for which the name Maribellus maritimus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 5E3^T (= KCTC 82744^T = MCCC 1H00473^T).