Christiangramia sediminicola sp. nov., a DNA-hydrolysing bacterium isolated from intertidal sediment

A Gram-stain-negative, yellow-pigmented, non-flagellated, motile by gliding, aerobic and rod-shaped bacterial strain, designated SM2212^T, was isolated from intertidal sediment of Aoshan Bay in Qingdao, China. The strain grew at 5-35 °C and with 0.5-5.5% NaCl (w/v). It was able to reduce nitrate to nitrite and hydrolyse starch, gelatin and DNA. The phylogenetic trees based on the 16S rRNA genes and single-copy genes showed that strain SM2212^T belonged to the genus <i>Christiangramia</i> within the family <i>Flavobacteriaceae</i>, sharing the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with the type strain of <i>Christiangramia echinicola</i> (97.1%) and 96.2-97.0% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with those of other known species in the genus. The major cellular fatty acids were summed feature 3 (C_16:1 <i>ω7с</i> and/or C_16:1 <i>ω6с</i>), iso-C_15:0, iso-C_{17: 0}3-OH, summed feature 9 (iso-C_17:1 <i> ω9c</i> and/or 10-methyl C_16:0) and C_16:0. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine and an unidentified lipid. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain SM2212^T was 37.0 mol%. The digital DNA-DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity values between strain SM2212^T and type strains of closely related known <i>Christiangramia</i> species were below 22.2 and 79.7%, respectively. Based on the polyphasic taxonomic analysis in this study, strain SM2212^T is considered to represent a novel species in the genus <i>Christiangramia</i>, for which the name <i>Christiangramia sediminicola</i> is proposed. The type strain is SM2212^T (=KCTC 92980^T=MCCC 1K07684^T).