Characterizing a new bacteriochlorophyll a-containing bacterium in the genus Litoreibacter

A strictly aerobic, bacteriochlorophyll a-containing alphaproteobacterium, designated strain K6T, was isolated from seawater around aquaculture at Uwa Sea in Japan. The non-motile and coccoid or rod-shaped cells formed pink pigmented colonies on agar plates containing organic compounds. Cells showed an in vivo absorption maximum at 870 nm in the near infrared region, indicating the presence of bacteriochlorophyll a in the light harvesting 1 complex. The new bacterial strain is Gram-stain-negative, and oxidase- and catalase-positive. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that strain K6T was closely related to species in the genus Litoreibacter. The closest phylogenetic relatives of strain K6T were Litoreibacter ponti GJSW-31T (98.56 % sequence similarity), Litoreibacter janthinus KMM 3842T (97.63 %) and Litoreibacter albidus KMM 3851T (96.88 %). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 58.2 mol%. The differential phenotypic properties. Therefore, we propose a new species in the genus Litoreibacter.