Halorubrum litoreum sp. nov., an extremely halophilic archaeon from a solar saltern

Abstract

An extremely halophilic archaeon, strain Fa-1T, was isolated from a marine solar saltern in Fujian, China. Strain Fa-1T required Mg2+ and at least 2.0 M NaCl for growth. It was able to grow at pH 6.5–9.0 (optimally at pH 7.0–7.5) and at 20–55 °C (optimally at 37–42 °C). The major polar lipids of strain Fa-1T were phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol phosphate methyl ester, phosphatidylglycerol sulfate and a sulfated diglycosyl diether. On the basis of a 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain Fa-1T was closely related to nine species of the genus Halorubrum, showing sequence similarities of 97.4–98.4 %. The G+C content of the DNA of strain Fa-1T is 64.9 mol% (T m). DNA–DNA hybridization values between strain Fa-1T and the most closely related members of the genus Halorubrum were below 51 %. On the basis of the data from this study, strain Fa-1T represents a novel species of the genus Halorubrum, for which the name Halorubrum litoreum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Fa-1T (=CGMCC 1.5336T =JCM 13561T).