Salinicoccus kunmingensis sp. nov., a moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from a salt mine in Yunnan, south-west China

Abstract

A novel yellow-pigmented, non-motile, non-sporulating, catalase- and oxidase-positive, obligately aerobic, moderately halophilic, facultatively alkaliphilic Gram-positive coccus, strain YIM Y15T, was isolated from a brine sample from a salt mine in Yunnan, south-west China. Strain YIM Y15T grew in the presence of 0.5–25 % (w/v) NaCl and at pH 6.0–10.0, with optimum growth at 8–10 % (w/v) NaCl and pH 8.0. It grew at 4–45 °C, with optimum growth at 37.0 °C. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C15 : 0 and iso-C15 : 0. Menaquinone 6 (MK-6) was the major respiratory quinone. The cell wall contained Lys and Gly. The DNA G+C content was 46.2 mol%. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons revealed that strain YIM Y15T was a member of the genus Salinicoccus, with low 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to the type strains of the five described species of the genus, Salinicoccus alkaliphilus JCM 11311T (sequence similarity 96.0 %), Salinicoccus roseus DSM 5351T (94.9 %), Salinicoccus jeotgali KCTC 13030T (94.8 %), Salinicoccus salsiraiae LMG 22840T (94.8 %) and Salinicoccus hispanicus DSM 5352T (94.7 %). Together with the phenotypic differences, these results supported the proposal of a novel species of the genus Salinicoccus, Salinicoccus kunmingensis sp. nov., with YIM Y15T (=DSM 17847T =CGMCC 1.6302T) as the type strain.