Eilatimonas milleporae gen. nov., sp. nov., a marine bacterium isolated from the hydrocoral Millepora dichotoma.

A marine bacterial strain, designated MD2(T), was isolated from the damaged tissue of a hydrocoral, Millepora dichotoma, collected from the coral reef in the northern Red Sea, Gulf of Eilat, Israel. Strain MD2(T) was Gram-reaction-negative, rod-shaped and motile, and formed small, creamy and opaque colonies, 1-2 mm in diameter, after 3 days incubation on Marine agar at 30°C. The novel strain grew well in nutrient broth at 1.5-6 % NaCl and at 20-37°C. The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C17 : 1ω9c, iso-C17 : 0, C18 : 1ω7c and C17 : 1ω6c. The polar lipids consisted of phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified lipid, two unidentified phospholipids, two unidentified glycolipids and two unidentified aminolipids. Ubiquinone Q-10 was the only respiratory lipoquinone. The DNA G+C content was 60.3 mol%. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence placed the organism in the α-subclass of the Proteobacteria with a sequence divergence of about 9 % from any species with a validly published name. The highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (approximately 91 %) was notably with type strains of members of the genus Kordiimonas, Kordiimonas aestuarii 101-1(T), Kordiimonas lacus S3-22(T) and Kordiimonas gwangyangensis GW14-5(T). On the basis of genotypic, chemotaxonomic and phenotypic distinctness, strain MD2(T) represents a novel species in a new genus of the class Alphaproteobacteria, for which the name Eilatimonas milleporae gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of the type species is MD2(T) ( = LMG 26586(T) = DSM 25217(T)).