Emended description of the family Chromatiaceae, phylogenetic analyses of the genera Alishewanella, Rheinheimera and Arsukibacterium, transfer of Rheinheimera longhuensis LH2-2 to the genus Alishewanella and description of Alishewanella alkalitolerans sp. nov. from Lonar Lake, India.

Phylogenetic analyses were performed for members of the family Chromatiaceae, signature nucleotides deduced and the genus Alishewanella transferred to Chromatiaceae. Phylogenetic analyses were executed for the genera Alishewanella, Arsukibacterium and Rheinheimera and the genus Rheinheimera is proposed to be split, with the creation of the Pararheinheimera gen. nov. Furthermore, the species Rheinheimera longhuensis, is transferred to the genus Alishewanella as Alishewanella longhuensis comb. nov. Besides, the genera Alishewanella and Rheinheimera are also emended. Strain LNK-7.1 was isolated from a water sample from the Lonar Lake, India. Cells were Gram-negative, motile rods, positive for catalase, oxidase, phosphatase, contained C, Cω8c, summed feature3 (Cω6c and/or Cω7c) and summed feature 8 (Cω7c) as major fatty acids, PE and PG as the major lipids and Q-8 as the sole respiratory quinone. Phylogenetic analyses using NJ, ME, ML and Maximum parsimony, based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, identified Alishewanella tabrizica RCRI4 as the closely related species of strain LNK-7.1 with a 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 98.13%. The DNA-DNA similarity between LNK-7.1 and the closely related species (A. tabrizica) was only 12.0% and, therefore, strain LNK-7.1 was identified as a novel species of the genus Alishewanella with the proposed name Alishewanella alkalitolerans sp. nov. In addition phenotypic characteristics confirmed the species status to strain LNK-7.1. The type strain of A. alkalitolerans is LNK-7.1 (LMG 29592 = KCTC 52279), isolated from a water sample collected from the Lonar lake, India.