Marivita roseacus sp. nov., of the family Rhodobacteraceae, isolated from a temperate estuary and an emended description of the genus Marivita

A gram-negative, non-motile, pigmented, rod-shaped and strictly aerobic bacterium (CB1052(T)) was isolated from a temperate estuary. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, strain CB1052(T) belongs to the α-3 subclass of the Proteobacteria, within the family Rhodobacteraceae, having the highest similarity to members of the genus Marivita (97.8%) of the Roseobacter lineage. Pylogenetic analysis showed CB1052(T) to be a distinct sister clade to M. litorea and M. cryptomonadis and DNA-DNA relatedness was quite low amongst the strains (< 35%). Strain CB1052(T) cells are non-motile and display a needle-like filamentous form, where individual cells can become quite elongated (up to 15 μm). Similar to M. litorea and M. cryptomonadis, CB1052(T) harbors aerobic anoxygenic photosynthesis genes. However, in contrast to other described Marivita species, strain CB1052(T) actively produces bacteriochlorophyll a. Further physiological features, including antibiotic sensitivities, differentiate strain CB1052(T) from the other members of the genus. Therefore, strain CB1052(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Marivita, for which the name Marivita roseacus sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain CB1052(T) (=DSM 23118(T) =ATCC BAA 1914(T)).