Colwellia ponticola sp. nov., isolated from seawater.

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, motile and rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated OISW-25 ^T , was isolated from seawater in Republic of Korea. Strain OISW-25 ^T grew optimally at 25 °C and in the presence of 2.0 % (w/v) NaCl. The phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain OISW-25 ^T fell within the clade comprising the type strains of Colwellia species. Strain OISW-25 ^T exhibited 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values of 97.5, 97.2 and 97.1 % to the type strains of C. piezophila , C. maris and C. psychrerythraea , respectively, and of 93.6-96.6 % to the type strains of the other Colwellia species. The average nucleotide identity values between strain OISW-25 ^T and C. piezophila ATCC BAA-637 ^T and two non-type strains of C. psychrerythraea were 78.16-79.35 % and DNA-DNA relatedness value of strain OISW-25 ^T with the type strain of C . maris was 17 %. The DNA G+C content of strain OISW-25 ^T was 39.2 mol% (HPLC) or 38.7 mol% (genome data). Strain OISW-25 ^T contained Q-8 as the predominant ubiquinone and summed feature 3 (C _16 : 1  ω 7 c and/or C _16 : 1  ω 6 c ) and C _16 : 0 as the major fatty acids. The major polar lipids of strain OISW-25 ^T were phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol. Distinguished phenotypic properties, along with the phylogenetic and genetic distinctiveness, revealed that strain OISW-25 ^T is distinct from Colwellia species. On the basis of the data presented, strain OISW-25 ^T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Colwellia , for which the name Colwellia ponticola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is OISW-25 ^T (=KCTC 62426 ^T =NBRC 113187 ^T ).