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

Abstract

A Gram-negative, aerobic, short rod-shaped and non-motile bacterium, strain A-1T, was isolated from a saline soil contaminated with crude oil in Xianhe, Shangdong Province, China. Strain A-1T 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 C16 : 0, summed feature 3 (comprising C16 : 1ω7c and/or iso-C15 : 0 2-OH), C18 : 1ω7c, C19 : 0 cyclo ω8c and C12 : 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-1T belonged to the genus Halomonas in the class Gammaproteobacteria. The closest relatives were Halomonas lutea YIM 91125T (97.7 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), H. muralis LMG 20969T (95.6 %), H. pantelleriensis AAPT (95.5 %) and H. kribbensis BH843T (95.2 %). DNA–DNA relatedness between strain A-1T and H. lutea CCTCC AB 206093T was 27±3 %. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic features, strain A-1T 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-1T ( = CGMCC 1.6848T  = JCM 14849T) as the type strain.