Alteromonas australica sp. nov., isolated from the Tasman Sea

A non-pigmented, motile, Gram-negative bacterium designated H 17 T was isolated from a seawater sample collected in Port Phillip Bay (the Tasman Sea, Pacific Ocean). The new organism displayed optimal growth between 4 and 37 C, was found to be neutrophilic and slightly halophilic, tolerating salt water environments up to 10 % NaCl. Strain H 17T was found to be able to degrade starch and Tween 80 but unable to degrade gelatin or agar. Phosphatidylglycerol (27.7 %) and phosphatidylethanolamine (72.3 %) were found to be the only associated phospholipids. The major fatty acids identified are typical for the genus Alteromonas and include C16:0, C 16:1ω7, C17:1ω8 and C18:1ω7. The G+C content of the DNA was found to be 43.4 mol%. A phylogenetic study, based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis and Multilocus Phylogenetic Analysis, clearly indicated that strain H 17T belongs to the genus Alteromonas. The DNA-DNA relatedness between strain H 17T and the validly named Alteromonas species was between 30.7 and 46.4 mol%. Based on these results, a new species, Alteromonas australica, is proposed. The type strain is H 17T (= KMM 6016T = CIP 109921T).