Marivita roseacus sp. nov., of the family Rhodobacteraceae, isolated from a temperate estuary and an emended description of the genus Marivita

Abstract

A gram-negative, non-motile, pigmented, rod-shaped and strictly aerobic bacterium (CB1052^T) was isolated from a temperate estuary. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, strain CB1052^T belongs to the α-3 subclass of the Proteobacteria, within the family Rhodobacteraceae, having the highest similarity to members of the genus Marivita (97.8%) of the Roseobacter lineage. Pylogenetic analysis showed CB1052^T to be a distinct sister clade to M. litorea and M. cryptomonadis and DNA-DNA relatedness was quite low amongst the strains (< 35%). Strain CB1052^T cells are non-motile and display a needle-like filamentous form, where individual cells can become quite elongated (up to 15μm). Similar to M. litorea and M. cryptomonadis, CB1052^T harbors aerobic anoxygenic photosynthesis genes. However, in contrast to other described Marivita species, strain CB1052^T actively produces bacteriochlorophyll a. Further physiological features, including antibiotic sensitivities, differentiate strain CB1052^T from the other members of the genus. Therefore, strain CB1052^T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Marivita, for which the name Marivita roseacus sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain CB1052^T (=DSM 23118^T =ATCC BAA 1914^T).