Gramella antarctica sp nov., isolated from marine surface sediment

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 degrees C, at pH 7.07.5 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 92.695.5% 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 C-16:1 omega 7c and/or C-16:1 omega 6c), isoC(15:0) (14.0 %), summed feature 9 (11.8 %, comprising 10-methyl C-16:0 and/or iso-C-17:1 omega 9c), iso-C-17:0 3-OH (11.8 %), iso-C-16:0 (7.4 %), C-17:1 omega 6c (6.9 %) and anteiso-C-15:0 (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 Gramella antarctica sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of the novel species is R17H11(T) (=GDMCC 1.1208(T)=KCTC 52925(T)).