Puniceicoccus vermicola gen. nov., sp nov., a novel marine bacterium, and description of Puniceicoccaceae fam. nov., Puniceicoccales ord. nov., Opitutaceae fam. nov., Opitutales ord. nov and Opitutae classis nov in the phylum 'Verrucomicrobia'

A Gram-negative, chemoheterotrophic, facultatively anaerobic coccus, designated IMCC1545(T), was isolated from the digestive tract of a marine clamworm, Periserrula leucophryna, inhabiting a tidal flat of the Yellow Sea. Cells of strain IMCC1545T are non-motile, dividing by binary fission. The predominant fatty acids are anteiSO-C-15:0 and C-18:0. The respiratory quinone is menaquinone-7 and the DNA G + C content is 52.1 mol%. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences using three treeing algorithms revealed that the strain formed a novel genus-level lineage within the phylum 'Verrucomicrobia'. The most closely related named organisms to strain IMCC1545(T) are 'Fucophilus fucoidanolyticus' SI-1234 (86.5% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), Alterococcus agarolyticus ADT3(T) (81.8%) and Opitutus terrae PB90-1(T) (80.3%), which belong to subdivision 4 of the 'Verrucomicrobia'. Subdivision 4 of the 'Verrucomicrobia' (here named Opitutae classis nov.) was divided into two clades, a clade containing strain IMCC1545(T) and a clade containing Opitutus terrae. From the taxonomic data obtained in this study, it is proposed that the new marine isolate be placed into a novel genus and species named Funiceicoccus vermicola gen. nov., sp. nov. (the type strain of Puniceicoccus vermicola is IMCC1545(T) =KCCM 42343(T) = NBRC 101964(T)) within Puniceicoccaceae fam. nov and Funiceicoccales ord. nov in the class Opitutae. The family Opitutaceae fam. nov. and order Opitutales ord. nov. are also formally proposed.