Rhodosalinus halophilus sp. nov., isolated from a marine solar saltern, and emended description of the genus Rhodosalinus.

Abstract

A novel Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped, beige-coloured, motile, facultatively anaerobic bacterium, designated as E84T, was isolated from sediment sampled from a marine solar saltern in Wendeng, PR China. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing showed that Rhodosalinus sediminis WDN1C137T was the closest phylogenetic relationship, with 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 96.9 %. Optimal growth occurred at 33-37 °C (range, 20-40 °C), at pH 7.5 (pH 7.0-8.5) and with 6.0 % (w/v) NaCl (0.5-20.0 %). The sole respiratory quinone was Q-10. The major fatty acids were summed feature 8 (C18 : 1ω7c and/or C18 : 1ω6c), C18 : 0 and cyclo C19 : 0ω8c. The polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol, one unidentified glycolipid, two unidentified phospholipids and two unidentified lipids. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain E84T was 69.8 mol%. Based on the results of physiological, genotypic, phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic analyses, we concluded that strain E84T represents a novel species of the genus Rhodosalinus, for which the name Rhodosalinus halophilus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is E84T (=KCTC 52697T=MCCC 1H00231T).