Nautella italica gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from a marine electroactive biofilm

Five isolates obtained from a marine electroactive biofilm grown on a stainless steel cathode were investigated by using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Analyses of whole-cell fatty acid methyl esters and 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the isolates belonged to the Roseobacter lineage of the class Alphaproteobacteria. Both phenotypic and genotypic analyses demonstrated that the five new isolates constituted a single species that did not represent a recognized member of the Roseobacter lineage. Therefore the five isolates represent a novel genus and species, for which the name Nautella italica gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LMG 24365 T (= CCUG 55857(T)). The DNA G + C content of the type strain is 61 mol%.