Aequorivita iocasae sp. nov., a halophilic bacterium isolated from sediment collected at a cold seep field in the South China Sea

A moderately halophilic bacterium, designated strain KX20305^T, was isolated from sediment collected from a cold seep field in the South China Sea. Cells of strain KX20305^T were Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped, non-motile, facultatively anaerobic, oxidase-and catalase-positive, and grew optimally at 25–30 °C, pH 6.0–8.0 and with 3–6% (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain KX20305^T grouped with members of the genus Aequorivita, including Aequorivita aquimaris D-24^T (98.3% sequence similarity), Aequorivita vladivostokensis KMM 3516^T (98.1%) and Aequorivita echinoideorum CC-CZW007^T (97.5%). Genome sequencing of strain KX20305^T revealed a genome size of 3.35 Mb and a DNA G+C content of 38.71 mol%. Genomic average nucleotide identity (orthoANI) values of strain KX20305^T with A. aquimaris D-24^T, A. vladivostokensis KMM 3516^T and A. echinoideorum JCM 30378^T were 83.8, 81.7 and 75.4%, respectively, while in silico DNA–DNA hybridization (GGDC) values for strain KX20305^T with these strains were 27.2, 25.0 and 19.6%, respectively. The major fatty acids of strain KX20305^T were iso-C_15:0, iso-C_17:0 3-OH and 10-methyl C_16:0 /iso-C_17:1 ω9c. The predominant respiratory quinone was menaquinone-6 (MK-6). The polar lipids mainly comprised phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified aminolipids and two unidentified lipids. Based on comparative analysis of phylogenetic, phylogenomic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, strain KX20305^T represents a novel species of the genus Aequorivita, for which the name Aequorivita iocasae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is KX20305^T (=KCTC 82699^T=MCCC 1K06238^T=JCM 34635^T).