Salinicoccus luteus sp. nov., isolated from a desert soil

Abstract

A moderately halophilic bacterium, strain YIM 70202T, was isolated from a desert soil sample collected from Egypt and was subjected to a taxonomic investigation. In a phylogenetic dendrogram based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain YIM 70202T was affiliated to the Salinicoccus clade, showing 94.5–96.8 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to the recognized species of the genus Salinicoccus, in which Salinicoccus roseus CCM 3516T was the nearest neighbour. The DNA–DNA relatedness value of the novel isolate with S. roseus CCM 3516T was 12.7 %. The novel isolate grew at temperatures between 4 and 45 °C and at pH values ranging from 7.0 to 11.0, with an optimum of 30 °C and pH 8.0–9.0, respectively. Strain YIM 70202T grew optimally in the presence of 10 % NaCl (w/v) and growth was observed at NaCl concentrations in the range 1–25 % (w/v). Chemotaxonomic data revealed that strain YIM 70202T contained MK-6 as the predominant respiratory quinone, possessed l-Lys–Gly5 as the cell-wall peptidoglycan, had phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol and an unknown glycolipid as the polar lipids and contained i-C15 : 0 and ai-C15 : 0 as the predominant fatty acids. The DNA G+C content was 49.7 mol%. The biochemical and chemotaxonomic properties demonstrate that strain YIM 70202T represents a novel species of the genus Salinicoccus. The name Salinicoccus luteus sp. nov. is proposed with strain YIM 70202T (=CGMCC 1.6511T=KCTC 3941T) as the type strain.