Aeromicrobium marinum sp nov., an abundant pelagic bacterium isolated from the German Wadden Sea

An obligately salt-dependent Gram-positive bacterium, designated strain T2(T), was isolated from surface waters of the German Wadden Sea. The organism exhibited optimum growth at salt concentrations similar to that of sea water. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic differences, it is concluded that strain T2(T) (=DSM 15272(T)=LMG 21768(T)) is the first marine species of the genus Aeromicrobium to be identified, for which the name Aeromicrobium marinum is proposed. It is also the first described marine bacterium within the family Nocardioidaceae. Strain T2(T) is a rod-shaped, aerobic, heterotrophic bacterium containing ILL-diaminopimelic acid in the peptidoglycan and MK-9(H-4) as the major menaquinone. The bacterium is characterized by high proportions of the fatty acids palmitic acid, oleic acid, tuberculostearic acid and hydroxypalmitic acid. DNA-DNA hybridization analysis showed the marine bacterium to display 29.1 % relatedness with Aeromicrobium fastidiosum DSM 10552(T) and 44-4% relatedness with Aeromicrobium erythreum DSM 8599(T). A. marinum was demonstrated to be an abundant member of the pelagic bacterial community in the German Wadden Sea since it represented about 1 % of the total bacterial population as revealed by dot-blot hybridization and most-probable-number counts.