title: Thalassomonas loyana sp. nov., a causative agent of the white plague-like disease of corals on the Eilat coral reef.
abstract: The taxonomic position of the coral pathogen strain CBMAI 722T was determined on the basis of molecular and phenotypic data. We clearly show that the novel isolate CBMAI 722 T is a member of the family Colwelliaceae, with Thalassomonas ganghwensis as the nearest neighbour (95 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity). CBMAI 722T can be differentiated from its nearest neighbour on the basis of phenotypic and chemotaxonomic features, including the utilization of cellobiose and L-arginine, the production of alginase and amylase, but not oxidase, and the presence of the fatty acids 12:0 3-OH and 14:0, but not 10:0 or 15:0. The DNA G+C content of CBMAI 722T is 39.3 mol%. We conclude that this strain represents a novel species for which we propose the name Thalassomonas loyana sp. nov., with the type strain CBMAI 722T (=LMG 22536T). This is the first report of the involvement of a member of the family Colwelliaceae in coral white plague-like disease.
authors.affiliation: Microbial Resources Division and Brazilian Collection of Environmental and Industrial Micro-organisms (CBMAI), CPQBA, UNICAMP, CP 6171, Brazil.
authors.forename: F L
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Barash
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology, Research Faculty of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, 3-1-1 Minato-cho, Hakodate 041-8611, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sawabe
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sharon
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology and BCCMTM/LMG Bacteria Collection, Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, Ghent 9000, Belgium.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Swings
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rosenberg
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000382:microbiology*; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000032:analysis; D020563:Gammaproteobacteria / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification* / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000502:physiology; D020459:Genes, rRNA; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010641:Phenotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S