Macromonas nakdongensis sp. nov., Isolated from Freshwater and Characterization of Bacteriophage BK-30P—The First Phage That Infects Genus Macromonas

A Gram-stain-negative, non-motile, non-pigmented, rod-shaped bacterium was isolated from a freshwater sample of Nakdong River in South Korea and designated as strain BK-30(T). An analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain BK-30(T) revealed its closest phylogenetic neighbors were members of the genus Macromonas. Specifically, the strain formed a robust clade with Macromonas bipunctata DSM 12705(T), sharing 98.4% similarity in their 16S rRNA gene sequences. The average nucleotide identity value between strain BK-30(T) and M. bipunctata DSM 12705(T) was 79.8%, and the genome-to-genome distance averaged 21.3%, indicating the representation of a novel genomic species. Strain BK-30(T) exhibited optimum growth at 30 °C and pH 7.0, in the absence of NaCl. The major respiratory isoprenoid quinone identified was ubiquinone-8 (Q-8). The principal fatty acids detected were C(16:1) ω7c and/or C(16:1) ω6c (49.6%), C(16:0) (27.5%), and C(18:1) ω7c and/or C(18:1) ω6c (9.2%). The DNA G+C content of the strain was determined to be 67.3 mol%. Based on these data, we propose a novel species within the genus Macromonas, named Macromonas nakdongensis sp. nov., to accommodate the bacterial isolate. Strain BK-30(T) is designated as the type strain (=KCTC 52161(T) = JCM 31376(T) = FBCC-B1). Additionally, we present the isolation and complete genome sequence of a lytic phage infecting strain BK-30(T), named BK-30P. This bacteriophage is the first reported to infect Macromonas, leading us to propose the name “Macromonasphage”.