Owenweeksia hongkongensis gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel marine bacterium of the phylum ‘Bacteroidetes’

Abstract

An aerobic, Gram-negative, non-fermentative, rod-shaped, motile, orange-pigmented bacterium, UST20020801(T), was isolated from sea-water samples collected from Port Shelter, Hong Kong, S.A.R., China, in August 2002. The full 16S rRNA gene sequence of this strain shared only 87.5 % similarity with its nearest relative, Crocinitomix catalasitica, a species of the family Cryomorphaceae. However, strain UST20020801(T) possessed menaquinone-6, a major respiratory quinone of members of the family Flavobacteriaceae. This strain contains unique fatty acids such as i15 : 1G, i17 : 1omega9c, 2-OH 15 : 0, 15 : 1omega6c and three unknown fatty acids of equivalent chain-length of 11.543, 13.565 and 16.582. Further analysis of its ecophysiology and biochemistry suggests that this strain represents a new genus in the phylum 'Bacteroidetes'. The name Owenweeksia hongkongensis gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is UST20020801(T) (=NRRL B-23963(T) = JCM 12287(T)).