Corallibacter vietnamensis gen. nov., sp. nov., a marine bacterium of the family Flavobacteriaceae.

The taxonomic position of two strains of a novel heterotrophic, strictly aerobic, Gram-negative, gliding, dark-orange-pigmented bacterium, designated KMM 6217(T) and KMM 6332, was determined. The strains grew at 10-40 °C and with 0.5-8.0% NaCl. They were catalase- and oxidase-positive, produced flexirubin-type pigments and hydrolysed aesculin, gelatin, starch, Tween 80 and DNA. The predominant fatty acids were iso-C(15:1), iso-C(15:0), C(15:0), summed feature 3 (comprising iso-C(15:0) 2-OH and/or C(16:1)ω7c) and iso-C(17:0) 3-OH. The polar lipid profile comprised phosphatidylethanolamine as the major component, three unknown aminolipids and one unknown lipid. The DNA G+C content was 34.7-34.8 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that the novel isolates could be placed in the family Flavobacteriaceae. The nearest neighbours of strains KMM 6217(T) and KMM 6332 were members of the genera Bizionia, Formosa, Lacinutrix, Meridianimaribacter, Mesoflavibacter and Winogradskyella, with sequence similarities to the type strains of species of these genera of 92.8-95.2, 93.7-94.5, 94.1-94.7, 94.9, 94.6 and 93.5-94.4%, respectively. Based on phenotypic, genotypic and phylogenetic data, strains KMM 6217(T) and KMM 6332 should be classified as representatives of a novel species in a new genus in the family Flavobacteriaceae of the phylum 'Bacteroidetes', for which the name Corallibacter vietnamensis gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain is KMM 6217(T) (=JCM 17525(T)=KCTC 23026(T)).