Neiella holothuriorum sp. nov., isolated from the gut of a sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus

A Gram-stain negative, aerobic, rod-shaped bacterium, designated 126 T , was isolated from the intestinal content of a sea cucumber, Apostichopus japonicus , in China. Strain 126 T was found to grow optimally at 25–28 °C and pH 7.5–8.0 in marine 2216 E medium, with tolerance of 1–7% (w/v) NaCl. Strain 126 T is motile by means of one to several polar flagella. The dominant fatty acids of strain 126 T were identified as C 16:1 ω7 c /C 16:1 ω6 c (29.5%), C 18:1 ω7 c /C 18:1 ω6 c (19.8%) and C 16:0 (16.7%). The respiratory quinone was found to be Q-8. The polar lipid profile was found to be mainly composed of phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine. The total length of the draft genome is approximately 4.2 × 10 6 bp, encoding 3655 genes and 3576 coding sequences. The G + C content of the genomic DNA is 48.0%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain 126 T belongs to the genus Neiella and is closely related to Neiella marina J221 T (96.5%). Genomic comparisons of 126 T to N. marina J221 T revealed that they had similar genome size, G + C content and complement of clusters of orthologous groups. However, average nucleotide identity and digital DNA–DNA hybridization values between strains126 T and N. marina J221 T was 75.5% and 19.7%, which could distinguish the strains. On the basis of these phenotypic and genotypic data, strain 126 T is concluded to represent a novel species, for which the name Neiella holothuriorum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 126 T (= GDMCC 1.2530 T = KCTC 82829 T ).