Gramella antarctica sp. nov., isolated from marine surface sediment

Abstract

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, yellow-coloured, motile by gliding, rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated R17H11^T, was isolated from surface sediment collected from the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Growth optimally occurred at 25-30 °C, at pH 7.0-7.5 and in the presence of 3 % NaCl (w/v). Phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain R17H11^T clustered together with Gramella flava JLT2011^T and fell within the genus Gramella. Strain R17H11^T shared the highest 16S rRNA gene similarities (96.1 and 96.0 %) with the type strains of Gramella forsetii and G. flava, and 92.6-95.5 % similarities with those of other known Gramella species. Strain R17H11^T contained menaquinone-6 as the only isoprenoid quinone. The major fatty acids (>5 %) were summed feature 3 (17.5 %, comprising C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c), iso-C15 : 0 (14.0 %), summed feature 9 (11.8 %, comprising 10-methyl C16 : 0 and/or iso-C17 : 1ω9c), iso-C17 : 0 3-OH (11.8 %), iso-C16 : 0 (7.4 %), C17 : 1ω6c (6.9 %) and anteiso-C15 : 0 (5.1 %). The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, four unidentified lipids, an unidentified aminolipid, an unidentified aminophospholipid and an unidentified glycolipid. The DNA G+C content of strain R17H11^T was 38.6 mol%. On the basis of the phylogenetic, physiological and chemotaxonomic characteristics, strain R17H11^T represents a novel species in the genus Gramella, for which the name Gramellaantarctica sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of the novel species is R17H11^T (=GDMCC 1.1208^T=KCTC 52925^T).