Fodinibius salinus gen. nov., sp. nov., a moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from a salt mine.

A novel, moderately halophilic, rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain YIM D17(T), was isolated from a sample of sediment from a salt mine in Yunnan, south-western China. The taxonomy of strain YIM D17(T) was investigated using a polyphasic approach. Strain YIM D17(T) was Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic and non-motile and formed pink colonies on marine agar. Optimal growth occurred at 37 °C, pH 7.5-8.0 and in the presence of 10-15 % (w/v) NaCl. The major menaquinone was MK-7. The polar lipid profile was composed predominantly of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, one phospholipid, one glycolipid and one aminolipid. Minor amounts of other lipids were also detectable. The predominant cellular fatty acids were iso-C(17 : 1)ω9c/10-methyl-C(16 : 0) (24.0 %), iso-C(15 : 0) (23.6 %) and C(16 : 1)ω7c/C(16 : 1)ω6c (13.8 %). The DNA G+C content was 43.0 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons showed that the isolate formed a distinct clade with the genera Gracilimonas and Balneola (both in the phylum Bacteroidetes) and was related to the species Gracilimonas tropica, Balneola vulgaris and Balneola alkaliphila, with sequence similarities of 85.6 %, 83.0 % and 82.8 % to the respective type strains. On the basis of its phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic features, strain YIM D17(T) represents a novel species of a new genus, for which the name Fodinibius salinus gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM D17(T) ( = ACCC 10716(T) = DSM 21935(T)).