Abstract

Bacterial communities residing on islands have a significant impact on the functioning and establishment of a unique isolated ecosystem. Notwithstanding, systematic research on the indigenous microbial resources of domestic islands has been lacking. In order to understand the biodiversity and potential bioresources, we conducted sampling in 2023 from coastal waters from various islands off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula, including Baengnyeongdo, Daebudo, Deokjeokdo, Jangbongdo, Yeonpyeongdo Islands, along with Somaemuldo Island along the south coast. The coastal seawater samples were used to unearth microbial resources through the standard dilution plating. In total, approximately 1,600 bacterial strains were isolated from the samples as single colonies and identified using 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses. Eighteen strains, exhibiting ≥98.7% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to bacterial species with validly published names but not previously reported in Korea, were categorized as unrecorded bacterial species in Korea. These unrecorded bacterial strains displayed phylogenetic diversity, representing three phyla, four classes, 9 orders, 13 families, and 18 genera. The unrecorded species were assigned to the classes Alphaproteobacteria (Aliiroseovarius, Kiloniella, Maritalea, Palleronia, and Roseobacter), Gammaproteobacteria (Aliamphritea, Aliivibrio, Enterovibrio, Francisella, Leucothrix, Pseudoalteromonas, Psychrobium, Shewanella, and Vibrio), Flavobacteriia (Aquimarina, Pseudofulvibacter, and Tenacibaculum), and Verrucomicrobiae (Roseibacillus). This study presents comprehensive descriptions of the taxonomic attributes of these unrecorded species, covering morphology, biochemistry, and phylogenetic position.