Parendozoicomonas haliclonae gen. nov. sp. nov. isolated from a marine sponge of the genus Haliclona and description of the family Endozoicomonadaceae fam. nov. comprising the genera Endozoicomonas, Parendozoicomonas, and Kistimonas.

Two Gram-stain-negative, facultative anaerobic, motile, rod-shaped strains, S-B4-1UT and JOB-63a, forming small whitish transparent colonies on marine agar, were isolated from a sponge of the genus Haliclona. The strains shared 99.7% 16S rRNA gene sequence identity and a DNA-DNA hybridization value of 100%, but were differentiated by genomic fingerprinting using rep-PCRs. 16S rRNA gene sequence phylogeny placed the strains as a sister branch to the monophyletic genus Endozoicomonas (Oceanospirillales; Gammaproteobacteria) with 92.3-94.3% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Endozoicomonas spp., 91.9 and 92.1% to Candidatus Endonucleobacter bathymodiolin, and 91.9 to 92.1% to the type strains of Kistimonas spp. Core genome based phylogeny of strain S-B4-1UT confirmed the phylogenetic placement. Major fatty acids were summed feature 3 (C16:1 ω7c/C16:1 ω6c) and 8 (C18:1 ω7c/C18:1 ω6c) followed by C10:0 3-OH, C16:0 , and C18:0 . The G+C content was 50.1-51.4mol%. The peptidoglycan diamino acid of strain S-B4-1UT was meso-diaminopimelic acid, the predominant polyamine spermidine, the major respiratory quinone ubiquinone Q-9; phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylserine were major polar lipids. Based on the clear phylogenetic distinction, the genus Parendozoicomonas gen. nov. is proposed, with Parendozoicomonas haliclonae sp. nov. as type species and strain S-B4-1UT (=CCM 8713T =DSM 103671T =LMG 29769T ) as type strain and JOB-63a as a second strain of the species. Based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence phylogeny of the Oceanospirillales within the Gammaproteobacteria, the Endozoicomonaceae fam. nov. is proposed including the genera Endozoicomonas, Parendozoicomonas, and Kistimonas as well as the Candidatus genus Endonucleobacter.