Oceanicola pacificus sp. nov., isolated from a deep-sea pyrene-degrading consortium

1 School of Life Sciences, MOE of Key Lab for Subtropical Wetland Ecosystem, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, PR China 2 Key Laboratory of Marine Biogenetic Resources, Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Xiamen 361005, PR China Correspondence Tianling Zheng wshwzh{at}xmu.edu.cn A taxonomic study was carried out on a Gram-negative, rod-shaped, non-motile, halophilic bacterium, designated strain W11-2B T , which was isolated from a pyrene-degrading consortium that was enriched from sediment from the Pacific Ocean. Growth was observed at salinities of 0.5–10 % and at temperatures of 10–41 °C. Strain W11-2B T was unable to degrade Tween 80 or gelatin. 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons showed that strain W11-2B T was related most closely to Oceanicola nanhaiensis SS011B1-20 T (95.8 % similarity) and Oceanicola batsensis HTCC2597 T (95.7 %); levels of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity between strain W11-2B T and the type strains of other species tested were below 95.2 %. The dominant fatty acids of strain W11-2B T were C 18 : 1 7 c (32.1 % of the total), C 19 : 0 cyclo (20.9 %), C 18 : 1 7 c 11-methyl (19.5 %), C 18 : 0 (7.3 %), C 17 : 0 (6.6 %) and C 16 : 0 (3.8 %). The G+C content of the chromosomal DNA was 64.6 mol%. The above data were in good agreement with those of members of the genus Oceanicola . Based on morphology, physiology, fatty acid composition and 16S rRNA gene sequence data, strain W11-2B T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Oceanicola , for which the name Oceanicola pacificus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is W11-2B T (=CCTCC AB 208224 T =LMG 24619 T =MCCC 1A01034 T ). These authors contributed equally to this work. The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain W11-2B T is DQ659449 . A transmission electron micrograph of cells of strain W11-2B T and a table detailing the cellular fatty acid content of strain W11-2B T are available as supplementary material with the online version of this paper.