Abstract
We have isolated two strains of extremely barophilic bacteria from sediment collected from the world's deepest ocean floor in the Mariana Trench, Challenger Deep, at a depth of 10898m [Kato C, Li L, Nogi Y, Nakamura Y, Tamaoka J, Horikoshi K (1998) Appl Environ Microbiol 64:1510-1513]. One strain, DB21MT-2, was identified as a strain of Shewanella benthica, and the other strain, DB21MT-5, is closely affiliated with members of the genus Moritella on the basis of 16S rDNA sequence analysis. The hybridization values for DNA-DNA relatedness between DB21MT-5 and the Moritella reference strains were significantly lower than that accepted as the phylogenetic definition of a species. Based on this and other taxonomic differences, strain DB21MT-5 appears to represent a novel obligately barophilic deep-sea Moritella species. The name Moritella yaynanosii (JCM 10263) is proposed. This is the first proposed species of obligately barophilic bacteria of the genus Moritella.