Aureispira anguillae sp. nov., isolated from Japanese eel Anguilla japonica leptocephali

A novel filamentous eel-leptocephalus pathogenic marine bacterium, designated strain EL160426T, was isolated from Japanese eel, Anguilla japonica, leptocephali reared at a laboratory in Mie, Japan. In experimental infection studies on eel larvae, the strain EL160426T caused massive larval mortality and was reisolated from moribund leptocephali. Characteristically, observations of infected larvae found that EL160426T forms columnar colonies on the cranial surface of larvae. The novel isolate exhibited growth at 15–30 °C, pH 7–9, and seawater concentrations of 60–150