Geojedonia litorea gen. nov., sp. nov., a member of the family Flavobacteriaceae isolated from coastal seawater.

A Gram-negative, non-flagellated, non-gliding and rod-shaped, coccoid or filamentous bacterial strain, designated YCS-16(T), was isolated from coastal seawater from a seaweed farm on the South Sea, South Korea, and its taxonomic position was investigated by using a polyphasic study. Strain YCS-16(T) was observed to grow optimally at 30 °C, at pH 7.0-7.5 and in the presence of 2 % (w/v) NaCl. Strain YCS-16(T) exhibited the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values to the type strains of Bizionia echini (96.1 %), Formosa spongicola (95.8 %), Bizionia algoritergicola (95.5 %) and Psychroserpens mesophilus (95.4 %). Neighbour-joining and maximum-parsimony phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain YCS-16(T) joined the cluster comprising the type strains of Psychroserpens species. Strain YCS-16(T) was found to contain MK-6 as the predominant menaquinone and iso-C17:0 3-OH, iso-C15:1 G and iso-C15:0 as the major fatty acids. The major polar lipids detected in strain YCS-16(T) were phosphatidylethanolamine and one unidentified lipid. The DNA G+C content of strain YCS-16(T) was determined to be 35.7 mol%. The phylogenetic analysis, chemotaxonomic data and other phenotypic properties revealed that strain YCS-16(T) constitutes a new genus and species within the family Flavobacteriaceae, for which the name Geojedonia litorea gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Geojedonia litorea is YCS-16(T) (=KCTC 32260(T) = CCUG 63682(T)).