Corynebacterium alimapuense sp. nov., an obligate marine actinomycete isolated from sediment of Valparaíso bay, Chile

A novel Gram-positive, non-motile, non-spore-forming and aerobic bacterium, designated strain VA37-3T, was isolated from a marine sediment sample collected at 19.2 m water depth from Valparaiso bay, Chile. Strain VA37-3T exhibits 97.6 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Corynebacterium marinum D7015T, 96.4 % to Corynebacterium humireducens MFC-5T and 96 % to Corynebacterium testudinoris M935/96/4T; and a rpoB gene sequence similarity of 85.1 % to Corynebacterium pollutisoli VMS11T, both analyses suggesting that strain VA37-3T represents a novel species of Corynebacterium . Physiological testing indicated that strain VA37-3T requires artificial sea water or sodium-supplemented media for growth, representing the first obligate marine actinomycete of the genus Corynebacterium . The genome of the proposed new species, along with the type strains of its most closely related species were sequenced and characterized. In silico genome-based similarity analyses revealed an ANIb of 72.8 % ( C. marinum D7015T), ANIm of 85.0 % ( Corynebacterium mustelae DSM 45274T), tetra of 0.90 ( Corynebacterium callunae DSM 20147T) and ggdc of 24.7 % ( Corynebacterium kutscheri DSM 20755T) when compared with the closest related strains. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain VA37-3T was 57.0 %. Chemotaxonomic assessment of strain VN6-2T showed the major fatty acids were C18 : 1ω9c and C16 : 0. Menaquinones predominantly consisted of MK-8(II-H2). Polar lipids consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, glycolipids, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphoglycolipid and phosphatidylinositol. Mycolic acids also were present. Overall, the results from phylogenetic, phenotypic and genomic analyses confirmed that strain VA37-3T represents a novel species of the genus Corynebacterium , for which the name Corynebacterium alimapuense sp. nov. is proposed, with VA37-3T as the type strain (=CCUG 69366T=NCIMB 15118T).