Abstract
A novel bacterial strain, APC 3343(T), was isolated from the intestine of a deep-sea loosejaw dragon fish, Malacosteus niger, caught at a depth of 1000 m in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. Cells were aerobic, rod-shaped, yellow/orange-pigmented, non-motile and Gram-negative. Growth of strain APC 3343(T) was observed at 4-30 °C (optimum, 21-25 °C), pH 5.5-10 (optimum, pH 7-8) and 0.5-8 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 2-4 %). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain APC 3343(T) was most closely related to members of the genus Winogradskyella, with the most closely related type strains being Winogradskyella algae Kr9-9(T) (98.46 % identity), Winogradskyella damuponensis F081-2(T) (98.07 %), Winogradskyella eximia CECT 7946(T) (97.93 %), Winogradskyella litoriviva KMM 6491(T) (97.79 %) and Winogradskyella endarachnes HL2-2(T) (97.79 %). Major fatty acids (>10 % of total) were iso-C(16 : 0) 3-OH, iso-C(15 : 0), anteiso-C(15 : 0) and iso-C(17 : 0) 3-OH. The predominant respiratory quinone was menaquinone-6 (MK-6). Polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, three unknown aminolipids and eight unknown lipids. The draft genome sequence was 3.8 Mb in length with a G+C content of 33.43 mol%. Based on the phenotypic characteristics and phylogenetic analysis, strain APC 3343(T) is deemed to be a novel species of the genus Winogradskyella, and for which the name Winogradskyella bathintestinalis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of this species is APC 3343(T) (=DSM 115832(T)=NCIMB 15464(T)).