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In this study, strain CoronadoT was isolated from a stadium seat at Niedermeyer Field, Coronado High School in Coronado, California, USA as part of a nationwide Citizen Science project (Project MERCCURI - www.spacemicrobes.org.) One goal of Project MERCCURI was to collect bacterial isolates to be used for an experiment aboard the International Space Station (ISS). A cotton swab was used to swab the surface of a stadium seat, then colonies were isolated via plating onto agar plates. The 16S rRNA gene was sequenced from this isolate and was at least 99% identical to rRNA genes from a few uncultured organisms. Uncultured isolates with high identity (=>99%) were found in samples from deep ocean sediment and the human skin microbiome. However, the highest identity to a cultured organism (_Porphyrobacter donghaensis_) \cite{Yoon_2004} was only 95.5% (as determined by BLAST, \cite{2231712}). Given the low identity to characterized species, a more detailed study of this isolate was undertaken.  A 2005 phylogenetic analysis of the _Alphaproteobacteria_ class led to the creation of a new family, _Erythrobacteraceae_, to house the genera _Erythrobacter_, _Porphyrobacter_ and _Erythromicrobium_ \cite{16166687}. These genera were later joined by _Altererythrobacter_ \cite{17911284} and _Croceicoccus_ \cite{Xu_2009}, \cite{19620383},  the latter work also emended the description of the family. Members of the _Erythrobacteraceae_ family are Gram-negative, aerobic bacteria that contain cartenoids, usually appearing pink, orange or yellow. They do not form spores, are chemo-organotrophic, and are most often associated with aquatic environments. Phylogenetic and biochemical characteristics presented here show that this isolate is clearly distinct from other members within the _Erythrobacteraceae_ family and is most closely related to the genus _Porphyrobacter_. However, a major taxonomic revision of this family is most likely required, as has been suggested by others (_e.g_. \cite{12656149} \cite{25713040}). Here we describe the genotypic, morphologic, and biochemical characteristics of strain CoronadoT, based on which we propose the name of _Porphyrobacter mercurialis_ sp. nov.