Luteimonas lutimaris sp. nov., isolated from a tidal flat

A Gram-staining-negative, strictly aerobic bacterium, designated strain G3 ^T, was isolated from a tidal flat of the Taean coast in South Korea. Cells were moderately halotolerant and non-motile rods showing catalase- and oxidase-positive reactions. Growth of strain G3 ^T was observed between 15 and 40 °C (optimum 30 °C) and between pH 5.5 and 9.0 (optimum pH 6.5-7.5). Strain G3 ^T contained Q-8 as the predominant lipoquinone and iso-C _{15: 0}, iso-C _{17: 1}ω9c, iso-C _{16: 0} and iso-C _{11: 0} as the major fatty acids. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 69.6 mol%. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain G3 ^T formed a tight phylogenetic lineage with Luteimonas mephitis B1953/27.1 ^T within the genus Luteimonas and was most closely related to L. mephitis B1953/27.1 ^T with 98.0% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity. The DNA-DNA relatedness between strain G3 ^T and L. mephitis B1953/27.1 ^T was 35.2±3.3%. On the basis of chemotaxonomic data and molecular properties, strain G3 ^T represents a novel species of the genus Luteimonas, for which the name Luteimonas lutimaris sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is G3 ^T (=KACC 14929 ^T =JCM 16916 ^T).