Erythrobacter aurantius sp. nov., isolated from intertidal seawater in Taizhou

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, chemoheterotrophic and rod-shaped strain, designated as C5T, was isolated from intertidal surface seawater in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, PR China and characterized using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Strain C5T could produce carotenoids and bacteriochlorophyll a. Growth was observed at 20–45 °C, at pH 6.0–9.0 and with 0–8.0 % (w/v) NaCl. The 16S rRNA gene sequence identity analysis revealed that strain C5T was the most closely related to 
 
 Qipengyuania nanhaisediminis
 
 CGMCC 1.7715T (98.8%) and 
 
 Erythrobacter litoralis
 
 DSM 8509T (98.7%). The phylogenetic reconstruction based on core genes demonstrated that strain C5T was clustered into the members of the genus 
 
 Erythrobacter
 
 . The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA–DNA hybridization values between strain C5T and 
 
 Erythrobacter
 
 type strains were lower than 76 and 25 %, respectively. The predominant and minor respiratory quinones were identified as ubiquinone-10 and ubiquinone-9. The major fatty acids were summed feature 8 (C18 : 1
  ω7c and/or C18 : 1
  ω6c) and iso-C18 : 0. Polar lipids included phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, a glycosphingolipid and an unidentified aminolipid. Based on the genetic, chemotaxonomic and phenotypic data, strain C5T is concluded to represent a novel species in the genus 
 
 Erythrobacter
 
 , for which the name Erythrobacter aurantius sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is C5T (=MCCC 1K05108T=KCTC 92307T).