and Jung-Hoon Yoon1 Correspondence

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile and pleomorphic (coccoid, ovoid or rod-shaped) bacterial strain, BS-W15T, isolated from a tidal flat sediment at Boseong in South Korea, was characterized taxonomically. Strain BS-W15T grew optimally at 25 6C, at pH 7.0–8.0 and in the presence of approximately 2.0 % (w/v) NaCl. Neighbour-joining and maximum-likelihood phylogenetic trees, based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, revealed that strain BS-W15T joined the cluster comprising the type strains of Profundibacterium mesophilum, Hwanghaeicola aestuarii, M. pelagius and M. salinus, showing 93.5–96.4 % sequence similarities. Strain BS-W15T contained Q-10 as the predominant ubiquinone and C18: 1v7c as the predominant fatty acid. The polar lipid profile of strain BS-W15T contained phosphatidylcholine and phosphati-dylglycerol as major components, differentiating it from those of the type strains of P. mesophilum, H. aestuarii, M. pelagius and M. salinus. The DNA G+C content of strain BS-W15T was 58.7 mol%. The differential phenotypic properties, together with the phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic data, demonstrate that strain BS-W15T is distinct from type strains of P. mesophilum, H. aestuarii, M. pelagius and M. salinus. On the basis of the data presented, strain BS-W15T is considered to represent a novel genus and species, for which the nam