Halomonas xianhensis sp. nov., a moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from a saline soil contaminated with crude oil.

A Gram-negative, aerobic, short rod-shaped and non-motile bacterium, strain A-1(T), was isolated from a saline soil contaminated with crude oil in Xianhe, Shangdong Province, China. Strain A-1(T) formed yellow colonies, was moderately halophilic and grew with 0.05-27.5% (w/v) total salts (optimum 5-8%), at 10-42 °C (optimum 30 °C) and at pH 5.5-9.0 (optimum pH 7.2). The dominant fatty acids (>5%) were C(16:0), summed feature 3 (comprising C(16:1)ω7c and/or iso-C(15:0) 2-OH), C(18:1)ω7c, C(19:0) cyclo ω8c and C(12:0) 3-OH and the predominant ubiquinone was Q-9. The genomic DNA G+C content was 67.1 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain A-1(T) belonged to the genus Halomonas in the class Gammaproteobacteria. The closest relatives were Halomonas lutea YIM 91125(T) (97.7% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), H. muralis LMG 20969(T) (95.6%), H. pantelleriensis AAP(T) (95.5%) and H. kribbensis BH843(T) (95.2%). DNA-DNA relatedness between strain A-1(T) and H. lutea CCTCC AB 206093(T) was 27±3%. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic features, strain A-1(T) should be placed in the genus Halomonas as a representative of a novel species. The name Halomonas xianhensis sp. nov. is proposed, with strain A-1(T) (=CGMCC 1.6848(T) =JCM 14849(T)) as the type strain.