Tenacibaculum crassostreae sp. nov., isolated from the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas

A rod-shaped, yellow-pigmented, aerobic, Gram-negative bacterium, designated strain JO-1^T, was isolated from an apparently healthy Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, collected at Wan Island, Korea. It grew at 15–37 °C (optimum 30 °C) only in the presence of sea salts. Strain JO-1^T hydrolysed casein, Tween 80 and starch. The major fatty acids were iso-C_{15 : 0} (23.8 %), summed feature 3 (comprising C_{16 : 1}ω7c and/or iso-C_{15 : 0} 2-OH; 14.5 %) and iso-C_{15 : 1} G (14.1 %). Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain JO-1^T was a member of the genus Tenacibaculum in the family Flavobacteriaceae, with sequence similarity of 94.6–97.8 % to the type strains of recognized members of the genus. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 31.4 mol%. DNA–DNA relatedness levels between strain JO-1^T and the five closest relatives, Tenacibaculum litoreum KCCM 42115^T, T. lutimaris KCTC 12302^T, T. aestuarii KCTC 12569^T, T. mesophilum DSM 13764^T and T. adriaticum JCM 14633^T, were less than 28 %. Phylogenetic analyses and differences in physiological and biochemical characteristics suggested that strain JO-1^T (=KCTC 22329^T =JCM 15428^T) should be classified as the type strain of a novel species within the genus Tenacibaculum, for which the name Tenacibaculum crassostreae sp. nov. is proposed.