Maricoccus atlantica gen. nov. sp. nov., isolated from deep sea sediment of the Atlantic Ocean

A taxonomic study was carried out on strain 22II-S10r2T, which was isolated from the deep sea sediment of the Atlantic Ocean using oil-degrading enrichment. The bacterium was Gram-negative, oxidase positive and catalase negative, spherical in shape, and motile by polar flagella. Growth was observed at salinities of 0.5–7 % and at temperatures of 10–41 °C. The isolate was capable of aesculin hydrolysis, but unable to reduce nitrate to nitrite or degrade Tween 80 or gelatine. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain 22II-S10r2T belonged to the family Ectothiorhodospiraceae, with highest sequence similarity to Thioalkalivibrio sulfidiphilus HL-EbGR7T (90.9 % similarity). The principal fatty acids were Sum In Feature 8 (C18:1ω7c/ω6c (29.9 %), C18:1ω9c (13.5 %), C16:1ω5c (12.3 %), C12:03OH (6.8 %), C18:1ω5c (5.7 %) and C16:0 (5.3 %). The G+C content of the chromosomal DNA was 60.7 mol%. The respiratory quinone was determined to be Q-7 (25 %) and Q-8 (75 %). Phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, aminophospholipid, glycolipid, three phospholipids and lipid were present. The strain was aerobic, non-phototrophic and non-chemolithoautotrophic. The combined genotypic and phenotypic data show that strain 22II-S10r2T represents a novel species within a novel genus, for which the name Maricoccus atlantica gen. nov. sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain 22II-S10r2T (=CGMCC NO.1.12317T = LMG 27155T = MCCC 1A09384T).