The genus Flagellimonas was first proposed by Bae et al. (2007) with the type species F. eckloniae having single polar flagellum which is unusual characteristic in the family Flavobacteriaceae. The genus Spongiibacterium was proposed by Yoon and Oh (2...
The genus Flagellimonas was first proposed by Bae et al. (2007) with the type species F. eckloniae having single polar flagellum which is unusual characteristic in the family Flavobacteriaceae. The genus Spongiibacterium was proposed by Yoon and Oh (2012) with the type species S. flavum which is non-motile. Although these genera were proposed separately, we have found that they have many common morphological, physiological and chemotaxonomic properties. Therefore, the two genera were combined as single Flagellimonas, then the description of the genus Flagellimonas was emended. A novel isolate, strain ECD12T was isolated from a seaweed Ecklonia cava. The cells were Gram-stain-negative, non-motile, non-spore- forming, aerobic, rod-shaped and required sea salts for growth. A phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain ECD12T forms an evolutionary lineage within the radiation enclosing the members of genera Spongiibacterium and Flagellimonas sharing the highest similarity with F. eckloniae DOKDO007T (96.8 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity) followed by S. pacificum SW169T (96.4 %) and S. flavum DSM 22638T (96.1 %). The major fatty acids were iso-C15:0, iso-C17:0 3-OH and iso-C15:1 G. Strain ECD12T contained MK-6 as the only isoprenoid quinone and phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified amino lipids and two unidentified lipids as the major polar lipids. The genomic DNA G+C content is 39 mol%. On the basis of the evidence presented in this study, a novel species, Flagellimonas aquimarina sp. nov., is proposed for strain ECD12T (=KCTC 52351T = JCM 32292T).