Hoeflea poritis sp. nov., isolated from a bleached scleractinian coral Porites lutea

A Gram- stain- negative, aerobic, rod- shaped, nonmotile and yellow- pigmented bacterium designated E7- 10T was isolated from a bleached scleractinian coral Porites lutea. Strain E7- 10T grew with 1.0-8.0 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 4.0 %), at 18-41 degrees C (optimum, 28 degrees C) and at pH 6.0-10.0 (optimum, pH 8.0). Phylogenetic analysis using 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that E7-10T formed a lineage within the genus Hoeflea, but it was distinct from the closest species 'Hoeflea prorocentri' PM5-8T, showing 98.01 % sequence similarity. The predominant cellular fatty acids of E7- 10T were summed feature 8 (26.7 %), C18: 1 omega 7c 11- methyl (26.2 %), C16: 0 (20.8 %) and C19: 0 cyclo omega 8c (17.9 %). The major respiratory quinone was Q- 10. The polar lipids mainly comprised phosphatidylethanolamine, two glycolipids and five phospholipids. The genome size of E7- 10T was 5.58 Mb with G+C content 60.27 mol%. The digital DNA-DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity values between the genomes of strains E7-10T and PM5- 8T were 19.50 and 75.95 %, respectively, which were both below the defined cutoff values (70 % and 95-96 %, respectively) for species delimitation. Thus, strain E7- 10T represents a novel species within the genus Hoeflea, for which the name Hoeflea poritis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is E7- 10T (=JCM 35852T=MCCC 1K08229T).