Halomonas azerbaijanica sp. nov., a halophilic bacterium isolated from Urmia Lake after the 2015 drought

A novel, slightly halophilic bacterium, designated TBZ202 T , was isolated from water of Urmia Lake, in the Azerbaijan region of north-west Iran. The strain was facultatively anaerobic, Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped and motile. Colonies were creamy, circular, convex and shiny. It grew at NaCl concentrations of 0–12 % (w/v) (optimum 3–5 % w/v), at temperatures of 20–45 °C (optimum 30 °C) and at pH 5.0–10.0 (optimum pH 7.0). Based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence, strain TBZ202 T belongs to the genus Halomonas in the Halomonadaceae and the most closely related species are Halomonas gudaonensis CGMCC 1.6133 T (98.6 % similarity), Halomonas ventosae Al12 T (96.8 %) and Halomonas rambilicola RS-16 T (96.6%). The G+C content was 67.9 % and the digital DNA–DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity values with H. gudaonensis were 35.8 and 83.8 %, respectively, indicating that the isolate differs from all species described. The major fatty acids were C 18 : 1 ω 7 c , C 16 : 0 and C 16 : 1 ω 7 c . The only respiratory quinone detected was Q-9 and polar lipids consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, aminophospholipid and three unknown phospholipids. On the basis of a polyphasic taxonomic analysis, the isolate is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Halomonas , for which the name Halomonas azerbaijanica sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is TBZ202 T (=KCTC 62817 T =CECT 9693 T ).