Winogradskyella bathintestinalis sp. nov., isolated from the intestine of the deep-sea loosejaw dragonfish, Malacosteus niger

A novel bacterial strain, APC 3343^T, was isolated from the intestine of a deep-sea loosejaw dragon fish, Malacosteus niger, caught at a depth of 1000 m in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. Cells were aerobic, rod-shaped, yellow/orange-pigmented, nonmotile and Gram-negative. Growth of strain APC 3343^T was observed at 4–30°C (optimum, 21–25°C), pH 5.5–10 (optimum, pH 7–8) and 0.5–8% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 2–4%). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain APC 3343^T was most closely related to members of the genus Winogradskyella, with the most closely related type strains being Winogradskyella algae Kr9-9^T (98.46% identity), Winogradskyella damuponensis F081-2^T (98.07%), Winogradskyella eximia CECT 7946^T (97.93%), Winogradskyella litoriviva KMM 6491^T (97.79%) and Winogradskyella endarachnes HL2-2^T (97.79%). Major fatty acids (>10% of total) were iso-C_16:0 3-OH, iso-C_15:0, anteiso-C_15:0 and iso-C_17:0 3-OH. The predominant respiratory quinone was menaquinone-6 (MK-6). Polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, three unknown aminolipids and eight unknown lipids. The draft genome sequence was 3.8 Mb in length with a G+C content of 33.43 mol%. Based on the phenotypic characteristics and phylogenetic analysis, strain APC 3343^T is deemed to be a novel species of the genus Winogradskyella, and for which the name Winogradskyella bathintestinalis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of this species is APC 3343^T (=DSM 115832^T=NCIMB 15464^T).