Aliilewinella sediminis gen. nov. sp. nov., isolated from the coastal sediment, and reclassification of some Lewinella species as the members of the genus Alilewinella

Abstract

A Gram-negative, non-motile, aerobic, gliding, slender rod-shaped bacterium was isolated from the coastal sediment of Xiaoshi Island, Weihai, China. The newly isolated strain, designated W8T, grew at 15–37°C (optimum, 30°C) and pH 6.0–8.5 (optimum, pH 7.0–7.5) in the presence of 1.0–5.0% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 3.0%). The major cellular fatty acids were summed feature 3 (C16:1ω7c/C16:1ω6c), iso-C15:0, iso-C17:0 3-OH, and summed feature 9 (C16:0 10-methyl/iso-C17:1ω9c). The sole isoprenoid quinone of the strain was MK-7. The polar lipid profile consisted of one phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified phospholipid, and eight unidentified polar lipids. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, strain W8T was found to be closely related to Lewinella agarilytica KCTC 12774T (94.5%), L. lacunae KCTC 42187T (94.1%) and L. aurantiaca SSH13T (93.3%), belonging to the family Lewinellaceae. Based on the results of polyphasic taxonomic analyses and genomic analyses, strain W8T (= KCTC 72084T = MCCC 1H00378T) is considered to represent a novel species within a new genus Aliilewinella, for which the name Aliilewinella sediminis gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. We also propose to reclassify 11 species of the genus Lewinella as the members of the genus Aliilewinella.