Paracoccus spongiarum sp. nov., isolated from the marine sponge, Phakellia elegans.

A facultative anaerobic Gram-negative bacterium, designated as strain 2205BS29-5^T, was isolated from a marine sponge, Phakellia elegans, in Beomseom on Jeju Island, Republic of Korea, and taxonomically characterized. The cells were catalase and oxidase positive, non-motile, coccoid-rod shaped and capable of poly-β-hydroxybutyrate production. Growth was observed at 10-37 °C (optimum, 25 °C) and pH 5.0-8.0 (optimum, pH 7.0), and in the presence of 0-9% NaCl (w/v) (optimum, 3.0-4.0%). The major cellular fatty acids and respiratory quinone were identified as summed feature 8 (C_18 : 1  ω7c/C_18 : 1  ω6c) and Q-10, respectively. The major polar lipids comprised diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, four phosphoglycolipids, two unidentified amino lipids and eight unidentified lipids. The DNA G+C content was 67.8%. Strain 2205BS29-5^T was most closely represented by Paracoccus amoyensis 11-3^T and P. caeni MJ17^T with 97.8 and 97.5% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities, respectively. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA genes and whole-genome sequences showed that strain 2205BS29-5^T was affiliated with the genus Paracoccus. Genomic analysis showed that strain 2205BS29-5^T could synthesize vitamin B family (folate and cobalamin) and ectoine. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain 2205BS29-5T and P. amoyensis 11-3^T were 77.1% and 18.8%, respectively, and with P. caeni MJ17^T were 78.4 and 21.2%, respectively. Based on phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and genome relatedness analyses, strain 2205BS29-5^T represents a novel species of the genus Paracoccus, for which the name Paracoccus spongiarum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 2205BS29-5^T (=LMG 33062^T =KACC 23240^T).