Novel aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic bacterium Jannaschia pagri sp. nov., isolated from seawater around a fish farm

The genus Jannaschia is one of the representatives of aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic (AAP) bacteria, which is a strictly aerobic bacterium, producing a photosynthetic pigment bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) a. However, a part of the genus Jannaschia members have not been confirmed the photosynthetic ability. The partly presence of the ability in the genus Jannaschia could suggest the complexity of evolutionary history for anoxygenic photosynthesis in the genus, which is expected as gene loss and/or horizontal gene transfer. Here a novel AAP bacterium designated as strain AI_62^T (= DSM 115720 ^T = NBRC 115938 ^T), was isolated from coastal seawater around a fish farm in the Uwa Sea, Japan. Its closest relatives were identified as Jannaschia seohaensis SMK-146 ^T (95.6% identity) and J. formosa 12N15^T (94.6% identity), which have been reported to produce BChl a. The genomic characteristic of strain AI_62^T clearly showed the possession of the anoxygenic photosynthesis related gene sets. This could be a useful model organism to approach the evolutionary mystery of anoxygenic photosynthesis in the genus Jannaschia. Based on a comprehensive consideration of both phylogenetic and phenotypic characteristics, we propose the classification of a novel species within the genus Jannaschia, designated as Jannaschia pagri sp. nov. The type strain for this newly proposed species is AI_62^T (= DSM 115720 ^T = NBRC 115938 ^T).