Halomonas zincidurans sp. nov., a heavy-metaltolerant bacterium isolated from the deep-sea environment

A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, rod-like, motile by peritrichous flagella and moderately halophilic bacterium, designated strain B6^T, was isolated a deep-sea sediment collected from the South Atlantic Ocean. The isolate grew with 0.5-15% (w/v) NaCl, at 4-37 °C and pH 5.0-8.5 and showed a high tolerance to zinc, manganese, cobalt and copper ions. The major fatty acids were C_{16: 0}, C_{19: 0} cyclo ω8c, C_{12: 0} 3-OH and C_{12: 0}. The predominant ubiquinone was Q-9. The genomic DNA G+C content was 61.1 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene comparisons indicated that strain B6^T belonged to the genus Halomonas, and the closest relative was Halomonas xinjiangensis TRM 0175^T (96.1%). Based upon the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and genetic data, strain B6^T represents a novel species from the genus Halomonas, for which the name Halomonas zincidurans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is B6^T (5CGMCC 1.12450^T5JCM 18472^T).