Marinomonas ostreistagni sp. nov., isolated from a pearl-oyster culture pond in Sanya, Hainan Province, China.

A Gram-negative, aerobic, halophilic, neutrophilic, rod-shaped, non-pigmented, polar-flagellated bacterium, UST010306-043T, was isolated from a pearl-oyster culture pond in Sanya, Hainan Province, China in January 2001. This marine bacterium had an optimum temperature for growth of between 33 and 37 °C. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, the strain was closely related to Marinomonas aquimarina and Marinomonas communis, with 97.5–97.7 and 97.1 % sequence similarity, respectively. Levels of DNA–DNA relatedness to the type strains of these species were well below 70 %. Analyses of phylogenetic, phenotypic and chemotaxomonic characteristics showed that strain UST010306-043T was distinct from currently established Marinomonas species. A novel species with the name Marinomonas ostreistagni sp. nov. is proposed to accommodate this bacterium, with strain UST010306-043T (=JCM 13672T=NRRL B-41433T) as the type strain.