A marine, magnetotactic bacterium, designated strain MMS-1T, was isolated from mud and water from a salt marsh in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA, after enrichment in defined oxygen-concentration/redox-gradient medium. Strain MMS-1T is an obligate microaerophile capable of chemoorganoheterotrophic and chemolithoautotrophic growth. Optimal growth occurred at pH 7.0 and 24–26 °C. Chemolithoautotrophic growth occurred with thiosulfate as the electron donor and autotrophic carbon fixation was via the Calvin–Benson–Bassham cycle. The G+C content of the DNA of strain MMS-1T was 47.2 mol%. Cells were Gram-negative and morphologically variable, with shapes that ranged from that of a lima bean to fully helical. Cells were motile by means of a single flagellum at each end of the cell (amphitrichous). Regardless of whether grown in liquid or semi-solid cultures, strain MMS-1T displayed only polar magnetotaxis and possessed a single chain of magnetosomes containing elongated octahedral crystals of magnetite, positioned along the long axis of the cell. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain MMS-1T belongs to the family
Rhodospirillaceae
within the
Alphaproteobacteria
, and is distantly related to species of the genus
Magnetospirillum
. Strain MMS-1T is therefore considered to represent a novel species of a new genus, for which the name Magnetospira thiophila gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Magnetospira thiophila is MMS-1T ( = ATCC BAA-1438T = JCM 17960T).