LAUSR

A bisphenol A-degrading bacterium, designated as strain H4T, was isolated from surface seawater, which was sampled from the Jiulong River estuary in southeast PR China. Strain H4T is Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, short rod-shaped, lacking bacteriochlorophyll a, motile with multifibrillar stalklike fascicle structures and capable of degrading bisphenol A. Growth of strain H4T was observed at 24-45 °C (optimum, 32 °C), at pH 5.5-9 (optimum, pH 7.0) and in 0-7 % NaCl (optimum, 2 %; w/v) . The 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain H4T showed highest similarity to Croceicoccus pelagius Ery9T (98.7 %), Croceicoccus sediminis (98.3 %), Croceicoccus naphthovorans PQ-2T (98.1 %) and Croceicoccus ponticola GM-16T (97.6 %), followed by Croceicoccus marinus E4A9T (96.7 %) and Croceicoccus mobilis Ery22T (96.0 %). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that strain H4T fell within a clade comprising the type strains of Croceicoccus species and formed a phyletic line with them that was distinct from other members of the family Erythrobacteraceae. The sole respiratory quinone was quinone 10 (Q-10). The predominant fatty acids (>5 % of the total fatty acids) of strain H4T were summed feature 8 (C18 : 1  ω6c and/or C18 : 1  ω7c), summed feature 3 (C16 : 1  ω6c and/or C16 : 1  ω7c), C17 : 1  ω6c and C14 : 02-OH. The genomic DNA G+C content was 62.8 mol%. In the polar lipid profile, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, two unidentified phospholipids, two sphingoglycolipids and three unknown lipids were the major compounds. Based on the genotypic and phenotypic data, strain H4T represents a novel species of the genus Croceicoccus, for which the name Croceicoccus bisphenolivorans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is H4T (=DSM 102182T=MCCC1 K02301T).