<i>Sulfitobacter geojensis</i> sp. nov., <i>Sulfitobacter noctilucae</i> sp. nov., and <i>Sulfitobacter</i> <i>noctilucicola</i> sp. nov., isolated from coastal seawater

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

<P>Four Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped bacterial strains, MM-124, MM-126, NB-68 and NB-77, were isolated from the coastal seawater or a region with a bloom of sea sparkle around Geoje island in Korea. The sequence similarity values of the 16S rRNA gene between the isolates and <I>Sulfitobacter mediterraneus</I> DSM 12244<SUP>T</SUP> ranged from 97.7 to 98.2 %, and phylogenetic relationships suggested that they belong to a phylogenetic branch that includes the genera <I>Sulfitobacter</I> and <I>Roseobacter</I>. The isoprenoid quinone of all three novel strains was ubiquinone-10 and the major fatty acid was <I>cis</I>-vaccenic acid, as in other species of the genus <I>Sulfitobacter</I>. However, there were several differences in the morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics among the four strains and the reference species of the genus <I>Sulfitobacter</I>. Moreover, the average nucleotide identity values between the three sequenced isolates and the reference strains were below 76.33, indicating that genomic variation exists between the isolates and reference strains. Chemotaxonomic characteristics together with phylogenetic affiliations and genomic distances illustrate that strains MM-124, NB-68 and NB-77 represent novel species of the genus <I>Sulfitobacter</I>, for which the names <I>Sulfitobacter</I> g<I>eojensis</I> sp. nov. (type strain MM-124<SUP>T</SUP> = KCTC 32124<SUP>T</SUP> = JCM 18835<SUP>T</SUP>), <I>Sulfitobacter noctilucae</I> sp. nov. (type strain NB-68<SUP>T</SUP> = KCTC 32122<SUP>T</SUP> = JCM 18833<SUP>T</SUP>) and <I>Sulfitobacter noctilucicola</I> sp. nov. (type strain NB-77<SUP>T</SUP> = KCTC 32123<SUP>T</SUP> = JCM 18834<SUP>T</SUP>) are proposed.</P>