Vitellibacter nionensis sp. nov., isolated from shallow water hydrothermal vent of Espalamaca, Azores.

A novel, Gram-negative, non-motile, rod-shaped yellow pigmented bacterium, designated VBW088 T was isolated from shallow water hydrothermal vent of Espalamaca, Azores. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain VBW088 T was clustered with three type strains of Vitellibacter species and exhibited sequence similarity of 97.3 % with Vitellibacter soesokkakensis RSSK-12 T . However, strain VBW088 T and V. soesokkakensis RSSK-12 T showed a low DNA-DNA relatedness (12.7±3.5 %). Strain VBW088 T was positive for catalase and oxidase. Growth occurred at 10–37 °C with optimum at 30 °C, at pH 6.0–8.0 (optimum 6.0) and with up to 5 % of NaCl concentration (w/v) with optimum at 1–2 % NaCl. The major fatty acids (>10 %) were iso-C15:0 (33.5 %) and iso-C17:0 3-OH (32.0 %). The polar lipids detected in strain VBW088 T consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), one unidentified aminolipid and three unidentified phospholipids. The DNA G+C content of strain VBW088 T was 36.7 mol%. On the basis of phylogenetic inference, DNA-DNA relatedness, chemotaxonomic analysis and physiological data, the isolate represents a novel species of the genus Vitellibacter, for which the name Vitellibacter nionensis sp. nov., is proposed, with type strain VBW088 T (=KCTC 32420 T = MCC 2354 T ).