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Thalassomonas loyana sp. nov., a causative agent of the white plague-like disease of corals on the Eilat coral reef.

Thompson FL, Barash Y, Sawabe T, Sharon G, Swings J, Rosenberg E

Microbial Resources Division and Brazilian Collection of Environmental and Industrial Micro-organisms (CBMAI), CPQBA, UNICAMP, CP 6171, Brazil. Fabiano.Thompson@terra.com.br

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.

Published 1 February 2006 in Int J Syst Evol Microbiol, 56: 365-8.
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