Taxonogenomic Investigation of Yoonia aquicola sp. nov., Isolated from Coastal Seawater.

Abstract

An alphaproteobacterium, KMU-150^T, was isolated from a coastal seawater sample collected in the Republic of Korea and investigated using a taxonogenomic approach. Cells were light beige in color, oval- to short rod-shaped, Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic, and non-motile. It was able to grow at 0-7.0% NaCl concentrations (w/v), pH 5.5-9.0, and 20-37 °C. A phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain KMU-150ᵀ clustered with the genus Yoonia within the class Alphaproteobacteria and was closely related to Yoonia litorea DPG-5ᵀ, with a sequence similarity of 98.4%. The sole respiratory quinone was Q-10, and the polar lipids consisted of phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, two unidentified aminolipids, and an unidentified phospholipid. C_18:1 ω7c was identified as a major (> 10%) fatty acid. Strain KMU-150^T had a genome size of 3.4 Mb and a DNA G + C content of 63.0%. Phylogenomic trees robustly placed strain KMU-150ᵀ within the genus Yoonia. The ANI values between strain KMU-150ᵀ and species of the genus Yoonia ranged from 71.6 to 75.1%, and the dDDH value with Y. litorea DPG-5ᵀ was 19.5%, indicating that strain KMU-150ᵀ represents a novel species of the genus. The genome of strain KMU-150ᵀ was predicted to harbor five putative biosynthetic gene clusters, suggesting a possible capacity for secondary metabolite biosynthesis. Moreover, several genes associated with the degradation of biological molecules were identified in the genome of strain KMU-150^T, indicating substantial potential for the synthesis of enzymes with valuable industrial applications. The taxonogenomic data obtained in this study support the conclusion that strain KMU-150ᵀ represents a novel species of the genus Yoonia, for which the name Yoonia aquicola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is KMU-150ᵀ (= KCCM 90340ᵀ = NBRC 117445ᵀ).