Gillisia myxillae sp. nov., a novel member of the family Flavobacteriaceae, isolated from the marine sponge Myxilla incrustans.

A yellow-pigmented, Gram-negative, rod-shaped, strictly aerobic bacterium (strain UST050418-085(T)) was isolated from the surface of a marine sponge, Myxilla incrustans, at Friday Harbor, WA, USA. The DNA G+C content of this strain was 34.6 mol%. The predominant fatty acids were i15 : 0, a15 : 0, i15 : 1, i16 : 0, i17 : 0 3-OH, 17 : 0 2-OH and summed feature 3, comprising i15 : 0 2-OH and/or 16 : 1omega7c (altogether representing 69.0 % of the total fatty acids). MK-6 was the only respiratory quinone detected. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that the closest relatives of UST050418-085(T) were members of the genus Gillisia, with sequence similarities of 93.2-96.6 %. Strain UST050418-085(T) differed from its closest relatives by 11 to 18 phenotypic traits. Molecular evidence and phenotypic characteristics suggest that strain UST050418-085(T) represents a novel species within the genus Gillisia. The name Gillisia myxillae sp. nov. is proposed, with UST050418-085(T) (=JCM 13564(T)=NRRL B-41416(T)) [corrected] as the type strain.