Fulvimarina fulva sp. nov. and Fulvimarina thalattae sp. nov., isolated from seawater off Ganghwa Island, South Korea

Two novel Gram-stain-negative strains, designated as MAC3^T and MAC8^T, which produced brownish-yellow and bright-orange colonies, respectively, were isolated from seawater collected off Minmeoru Beach, Ganghwa Island, Republic of Korea. These strains were facultatively anaerobic, catalase- and oxidase-positive, rod-shaped and motile with flagella. Both strains grew at 4-40 °C and at pH 4.0-10.0. Strain MAC3^T grew in sodium chloride (NaCl) concentrations (w/v) of 0-15.0%, while strain MAC8^T tolerated 0-14.0%. Both strains contained ubiquinone-10 as the predominant respiratory quinone and C_18:1 <i> ω</i>7<i>c</i> (or summed feature 8, comprising C_18:1 <i> ω</i>6<i>c</i> and/or C_18:1 <i> ω</i>7<i>c</i>) as the major fatty acid. The major polar lipids of both strains included diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine and an unidentified aminoglycolipid. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences placed the two strains within the genus <i>Fulvimarina</i>. Strain MAC3^T shared the highest sequence similarity (97.7%) with <i>Fulvimarina endophytica</i> 85^T, while strain MAC8^T shared 97.9% sequence similarity with <i>Fulvimarina pelagi</i> HTCC2506^T. The DNA guanine and cytosine (G+C) content of both MAC3^T and MAC8^T was 61.5 mol%. The digital DNA-DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity values between the novel strains and related type strains were 20.8-26.2% and 75.1-82.9%, respectively. Based on the results of the polyphasic analysis, strains MAC3^T and MAC8^T represent two novel species in the genus <i>Fulvimarina</i>, for which the names <i>Fulvimarina fulva</i> sp. nov. and <i>Fulvimarina thalattae</i> sp. nov. are proposed, respectively. The <i>F. fulva</i> and <i>F. thalattae</i> type strains are MAC3^T (=KACC 23727^T=TBRC 19011^T) and MAC8^T (=KACC 23726^T=TBRC 19010^T), respectively.