Eight unrecorded bacterial species isolated from soil and marine sediment in Korea

The Earth contains billions of microbial species, although the vast majority cannot be cultured in laboratories and are thus considered unidentified and uncharacterized. Extremophiles are microorganisms that thrive in extreme conditions, including temperature, salinity, and pH. Extremophilic microorganisms have provided important insights for biological, metabolic, and evolutionary studies. Between 2017 and 2019, as part of a comprehensive investigation to identify bacterial species in Korea, eight bacterial strains were isolated from marine and non-marine environments in Jeju Island. These strains were cultured under extreme salinity or pH conditions. Phylogenetic analysis using 16S ribosomal RNA(rRNA) gene sequencing indicated that all eight strains belonged to the phyla Gammaproteobacteria, Bacilli, and Alphaproteobacteria. Based on their high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities(>98.7%) and the formation of strong monophyletic clades with their closest related species, all isolated strains were considered as an unrecorded strain, previously unidentified species. Gram stain reaction, culture conditions, colony and cell morphology, biochemical characteristics, isolation source, and National Institute of Biological Resources(NIBR) IDs are described in this article. The characterization of these unrecorded strains provides information on microorganisms living in Korea.