Christiangramia sediminicola sp. nov., a DNA-hydrolysing bacterium isolated from intertidal sediment

A Gram-stain-negative, yellow-pigmented, non-flagellated, motile by gliding, aerobic and rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated SM2212T, was isolated from intertidal sediment of Aoshan Bay in Qingdao, China. The strain grew at 5-35 degrees C and with 0.5-5.5% NaCl (w/v). It was able to reduce nitrate to nitrite and hydrolyse starch, gelatin and DNA. The phylogenetic trees based on the 16S rRNA genes and single-copy genes showed that strain SM2212T belonged to the genus Christiangramia within the family Flavobacteriaceae, sharing the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with the type strain of Christiangramia echinicola (97.1%) and 96.2-97.0% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with those of other known species in the genus. The major cellular fatty acids were summed feature 3 (C16:1 omega 7 & scy; and/or C16:1 omega 6 & scy;), iso-C15:0, iso-C17:03-OH, summed feature 9 (iso-C17:1 omega 9c and/or 10-methyl C16:0) and C16:0. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine and an unidentified lipid. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain SM2212T was 37.0 mol%. The digital DNA-DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity values between strain SM2212T and type strains of closely related known Christiangramia species were below 22.2 and 79.7%, respectively. Based on the polyphasic taxonomic analysis in this study, strain SM2212T is considered to represent a novel species in the genus Christiangramia, for which the name Christiangramia sediminicola is proposed. The type strain is SM2212T (=KCTC 92980T=MCCC 1K07684T).