A bisphenol A-degrading bacterium, designated as strain H4T, was isolated from surface seawater, which was sampled from the Jiulong River estuary in southeast PR China. Strain H4T is Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, short rod-shaped, lacking bacteriochlorophyll a, motile with multifibrillar stalklike fascicle structures and capable of degrading bisphenol A. Growth of strain H4T was observed at 24–45 °C (optimum, 32 °C), at pH 5.5–9 (optimum, pH 7.0) and in 0–7 % NaCl (optimum, 2 %; w/v) . The 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain H4T showed highest similarity to
Croceicoccus pelagius
Ery9T (98.7 %),
Croceicoccus sediminis
(98.3 %),
Croceicoccus naphthovorans
PQ-2T (98.1 %) and
Croceicoccus ponticola
GM-16T (97.6 %), followed by
Croceicoccus marinus
E4A9T (96.7 %) and
Croceicoccus mobilis
Ery22T (96.0 %). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that strain H4T fell within a clade comprising the type strains of
Croceicoccus
species and formed a phyletic line with them that was distinct from other members of the family
Erythrobacteraceae
. The sole respiratory quinone was quinone 10 (Q-10). The predominant fatty acids (>5 % of the total fatty acids) of strain H4T were summed feature 8 (C18 : 1
ω6c and/or C18 : 1
ω7c), summed feature 3 (C16 : 1
ω6c and/or C16 : 1
ω7c), C17 : 1
ω6c and C14 : 02-OH. The genomic DNA G+C content was 62.8 mol%. In the polar lipid profile, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, two unidentified phospholipids, two sphingoglycolipids and three unknown lipids were the major compounds. Based on the genotypic and phenotypic data, strain H4T represents a novel species of the genus
Croceicoccus
, for which the name Croceicoccus bisphenolivorans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is H4T (=DSM 102182T=MCCC1 K02301T).