Halomonas saliphila sp. nov., a moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from a saline soil.

A novel, Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped, motile and moderately halophilic bacterium, designated strain LCB169, was isolated from a saline soil sample from Gansu Province, PR China. The cells of LCB169 grew at 10-52 °C (optimum 30 °C), at pH 6.0-10.0 (optimum pH 8.0) and in the presence of 0-17 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum 10-15 %). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences and concatenated 16S rRNA, gyrB and rpoD genes sequences revealed that LCB169 represented a member of the genus Halomonas in the class Gammaproteobacteria. The most closely related species were Halomonas daqingensis DQD2-30 (98.0 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), Halomonas kenyensis AIR-2 (97.8 %) and Halomonas desiderata FB2 (97.5 %). DNA-DNA relatedness values between LCB169 and H. daqingensis CGMCC 1.6443, H. desiderata DSM 9502 and H. kenyensis DSM 17331 were 33, 35 and 38 %, respectively. The polar lipids were identified as diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine and three unidentified phospholipids. The major fatty acids were C18 : 1ω7c, C16 : 0, C16 : 1ω7c and C12 : 0 3-OH. The genomic DNA G+C content was 66.1 mol% and the predominant respiratory quinone was Q-9. On the basis of the results of phenotypic, phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic analyses and DNA-DNA hybridization relatedness values, LCB169 is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Halomonas, for which the name Halomonas saliphila sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LCB169 (=CGMCC 1.15818=KCTC 52618).