Maritimibacter harenae sp. nov. and Sneathiella litorea sp. nov.: members of Alphaproteobacteria isolated from sea sand

Two Gram-negative, rod bacteria, strains DP07(T) and DP05(T), showing catalase- and oxidase-positive activities, were isolated from sea sand in South Korea. Strain DP07(T) was strictly aerobic and had a yellow colony colour. Contrastingly, strain DP05(T) was facultatively aerobic and had a creamy colony colour. Both strains contained ubiquinone-10 as the sole isoprenoid quinone. Strain DP07(T) contained cyclo-C-19:0 omega 8c, C-16:0, summed feature 8 (comprising C-18:1 omega 7c and/or C-18:1 omega 6c), and C-16:0 2-OH as the major fatty acids and phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified phospholipid, and an unidentified polar lipid as the major polar lipids. Strain DP05(T) contained C-16:0, cyclo-C-19:0, and summed feature 8 (comprising C-18:1 omega 7c and/or C-18:1 omega 6c) as the major fatty acids and phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified aminophospholipid, and two unidentified polar lipids as the major polar lipids. Cadaverine was detected as the predominant polyamine in both strains. The DNA G + C contents of strains DP07(T) and DP05(T) were 66.1 mol% and 51.8 mol%, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strains DP07(T) and DP05(T) formed close phylogenetic lineages with Maritimibacter alkaliphilus HTCC2654(T) (similarity, 98.1%) and Sneathiella chungangensis CAU 1294( T) (similarity, 98.5%), respectively. The average nucleotide identity and DNA-DNA hybridisation values between strain DP07(T) and M. alkaliphilus were 80.0% and 23.0%, respectively, and those between strain DP05(T) and S. chungangensis were 77.1% and 19.9%, respectively. Based on the results of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, and molecular analyses, strains DP07(T) and DP05(T) represent two novel species of the genera Maritimibacter and Sneathiella, respectively, for which we propose the following names: Maritimibacter harenae sp. nov. and Sneathiella litorea sp. nov. The type strains of M. harenae and S. litorea were DP07(T) (= KACC 21429( T) = JCM 33811( T)) and DP05(T) (= KACC 21431( T) = JCM 33810( T)), respectively.