Halostella salina gen. nov., sp. nov., an extremely halophilic archaeon isolated from solar salt

A novel halophilic archaeon designated strain CBA1114 T was isolated from solar salt in the Republic of Korea. Strain CBA1114 T , cells of which were coccoid and Gram-stain-negative, grew in the presence of 15-30 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 20 %) and at 20-50 °C (optimum, 40 °C) and pH 7.0-9.0 (optimum, pH 8.0). Strain CBA1114 T required Mg 2+ for growth. Strain CBA1114 T had three 16S rRNA genes, rrnA, rrnB and rrnC; levels of similarity between the sequences were 99.7-99.9 %. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain CBA1114 T showed 91.7 % similarity to that of Haloterrigena thermotolerans PR5 T . In multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA), five housekeeping genes, atpB, EF-2, radA, rpoB' and secY, were found to be closely related to those of the members of the genera Halorientalis(89.7 % similarity of the atpB gene sequence), Halomicroarcula(91.9 %, EF-2), Haloterrigena(85.4 %, radA), Natronoarchaeum(89.2 %, rpoB') and Natrinema(75.7 %, secY). A phylogenetic tree generated from the results of MLSA of the five housekeeping genes showed that strain CBA1114 T was closely related to species of the genus Halorientalis in the family Halobacteriaceae. The major polar lipids were identified as phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol phosphate methyl ester and unidentified lipids. The G+C content of the genomic DNA of strain CBA1114 T was 68.1 mol%. According to the results of phylogenetic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic analyses, we designate strain CBA1114 T (=JCM 30111 T =KCTC 4206 T ) as the type strain of Halostella salina gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel species of a new genus within the family Halobacteriaceae.