Belliella aquatica sp. nov., isolated from a saline lake

A Gram-staining-negative bacterium, strain TS-T86(T), was isolated from Lake Tuosu, a saline lake (salinity 5.4%, w/w) in Qaidam basin, China. Its taxonomic position was determined by using a polyphasic approach. Strain TS-T86(T) was strictly heterotrophic, aerobic and catalase- and oxidase-positive. Cells were non-spore-forming, non-motile rods, 0.4-0.6 µm wide and 1.2-2.3 µm long. Growth was observed in the presence of 0-9.0% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 2.0%), at 4-35 °C (optimum, 25 °C) and at pH 7.0-10.5 (optimum, pH 8.5-9.0). Strain TS-T86(T) contained MK-7 as the predominant respiratory quinone. The major fatty acids (>10%) were iso-C15 : 1 G, iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 1ω9c, iso-C17 : 0 3-OH and summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c). The polar lipids consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, an unknown phospholipid, six unidentified aminolipids and two uncharacterized lipids. The DNA G+C content was 35 mol% (T m). Phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain TS-T86(T) was associated with the genus Belliella, and showed the highest sequence similarity to Belliella baltica BA134(T) (98.5 %) and then to Belliella kenyensis No.164(T) (95.7%) and Belliella pelovolcani CC-SAL-25(T) (95.3 %). DNA-DNA relatedness of strain TS-T86(T) to Belliella baltica DSM 15883(T) was 32 ± 3%. It is concluded that strain TS-T86(T) represents a novel species of the genus Belliella, for which the name Belliella aquatica sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is TS-T86(T) ( = CGMCC 1.12479(T) = JCM 19468(T)).