Sphingorhabdus arenilitoris sp. nov., isolated from a coastal sand, and reclassification of Sphingopyxis rigui as Sphingorhabdus rigui comb. nov. and Sphingopyxis wooponensis as Sphingorhabdus wooponensis comb. nov.

Abstract

A Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic, non-flagellated and rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated GJR-7(T), was isolated from coastal sand of the South Sea of South Korea. Strain GJR-7(T) grew optimally at 30 °C, at pH 7.0-7.5 and without NaCl. Phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain GJR-7(T) clustered with the type strains of Sphingopyxis wooponensis, Sphingopyxis rigui and Sphingorhabdus planktonica, with which it exhibited 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values of 96.0-96.3%. Sequence similarities to the type strains of other recognized species were less than 95.5%. Strain GJR-7(T) contained Q-10 as the predominant ubiquinone and C(18 : 1)ω7c, 11-methyl C(18 : 1)ω7c and summed feature 3 (C(16 : 1)ω7c and/or C(16 : 1)ω6c) or C(14 : 0) 2-OH. The major polar lipids were sphingoglycolipid, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol and one unidentified glycolipid. The DNA G+C content of strain GJR-7(T) was 55.5 mol%. Differential phenotypic properties, together with phylogenetic distinctiveness, revealed that strain GJR-7(T) is separated from the type strains of Sphingopyxis wooponensis, Sphingopyxis rigui and Sphingorhabdus planktonica. On the basis of the data presented, strain GJR-7(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Sphingorhabdus, for which the name Sphingorhabdus arenilitoris sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is GJR-7(T) ( = KCTC 42051(T) = CECT 8531(T)). It is also proposed that Sphingopyxis wooponensis and Sphingopyxis rigui should be reclassified as members of the genus Sphingorhabdus.