A novel psychrotolerant, Gram-negative, motile bacterium, designated strain 328 T , was isolated from sea-ice samples collected off the Canadian Basin of the Arctic Ocean (786 239 140 N 1496 069 550 W). Strain 328 T was able to grow at 0-37 6C, with optimum growth at 25-27 6C. It possessed phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol as major phospholipids and C 10 : 0 3-OH (31.78 %), C 18 : 1 v7c (27.50 %) and iso-C 15 : 0 2-OH and/or C 16 : 1 v7c (19.22 %) as predominant cellular fatty acids. The DNA G+C content of strain 328 T was 45.2 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain 328 T was a member of the genus Marinomonas (92.7-96.0 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity). On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic distinctiveness, strain 328 T was considered to represent a novel species of the genus Marinomonas. The name Marinomonas arctica sp. nov. is proposed, with strain 328 T (5CGMCC 1.6498 T 5JCM 14976 T ) as the type strain.The genus Marinomonas was proposed by the reclassification of two species of the genus Alteromonas (Baumann et al., 1972), namely Alteromonas vaga and Alteromonas communis, as Marinomonas vaga and Marinomonas communis, based on 16S rRNA gene sequences (Van Landschoot & De Ley, 1983). So far, the genus Marinomonas comprises ten species: M. communis, M. vaga, M. mediterranea, M. primoryensis, M. pontica, M. ushuaiensis, M. aquimarina, M. dokdonensis, M. polaris and M. ostreistagni (Baumann et al., 1972; Solano & SanchezAmat, 1999; Romanenko et al., 2003;Ivanova et al., 2005;Prabagaran et al., 2005; Macián et al., 2005;Yoon et al., 2005;Gupta et al., 2006;Lau et al., 2006). During screening of cold-adapted bacteria from sea-ice samples of the Arctic Ocean, a novel psychrotolerant strain, designated strain 328 T , was isolated. Based on a polyphasic taxonomic approach, strain 328 T was identified as a representative of a novel species of the genus Marinomonas.Strain 328 T was isolated from sea-ice samples collected from the Canadian Basin (78 u 239 140 N 149 u 069 550 W) using a MARK II ice auger during the Second Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition cruise of the USCGC icebreaker Xue Long into the Canadian Basin in August 2003. Sea-ice samples were cut carefully into 10-20 cm sections using a sterile saw and placed in sterile plastic bottle to be melted at 4 u C. Strain 328 T was obtained using previously described media and methods (Zhang et al., 2006). The novel isolate was routinely grown on marine agar (MA) for 2 days at 25 u C and maintained as a glycerol suspension (20 %, w/v) at 280 u C. M. polaris JCM 12522 T , obtained from the JCM, was routinely grown on MA or in marine 2216 broth (MB) at 22 u C and used as a reference strain.DNA was extracted from strain 328 T and purified as described by Sambrook et al. (1989). The 16S rRNA gene was amplified by PCR with two universal primers (Zhang et al., 2006). Purified PCR product was ligated to pMD 18-T (TaKaRa Bio) and cloned according to the manufacturer's instructions....