Halobacteroides halobius gen. nov., sp. nov., a Moderately Halophic Anaerobic Bacterium from the Bottom Sediments of the Dead Sea

An anaerobic, long rod-shaped, motile, Gram-negative, non-sporulating bacterium wasisolated from Dead Sea sediment. It required NaCl concentrations between 1.4 and 2.8 mol/l, and optimal growth with doubling times of about 1 hour was found in 1.5-2.5 mol NaCl/l and 37-42 °C. Fermentation products on glucose were ethanol, acetate, hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Fermentable substrates included several mono- and oligosaccharides, starch and pyruvate. The Guanine plus Cytosine content of its DNA was 30.7 mol . Analysis of the oligonucleotides in a digest of its 16S rRNA showed that the isolate was an eubacterium, but was not a member of any of the major eubacterial subgroups defined to date. We propose to name it Halobacteroides halobius gen. nov., sp. nov., belonging to a new family, the Haloanaerobiaceae. The type strain is strain MD-1 (ATCC 35273).