Haloterrigena saccharevitans sp. nov., an extremely halophilic archaeon from Xin-Jiang, China

A novel extremely halophilic strain, isolated from Aibi salt lake, Xin-Jiang, China, was subjected to polyphasic taxonomic characterization. This strain, designated AB14^T, is neutrophilic, motile and requires at least 10 % (w/v) NaCl for growth. Strain AB14^T grows at 24-58 °C, with optimal growth at 42-45 °C. Mg²⁺ is not required, but growth is observed in MgCl₂ concentrations as high as 1.0 M. Strain AB14^T possesses the diphytanyl (C₂₀C₂₀) and phytanyl-sesterterpanyl diether (C₂₀C₂₅) derivatives of phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol phosphate methyl ester and mannose-2,6 disulfate 1→2 glucose-glycerol diether. The genomic DNA G+C content is 66.6 mol%. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values of strain AB14^T with its nearest phylogenetic neighbours (Haloterrigena thermotolerans and Haloterrigena turkmenica) are 98.6 and 96.0%, respectively. DNA-DNA hybridization revealed 54 % relatedness between strain AB14^T and Haloterrigena thermotolerans JCM 11050^T and 21 % between strain AB14^T and Haloterrigena turkmenica JCM 9101^T. It is therefore proposed that strain AB14^T represents a novel species, for which the name Haloterrigena saccharevitans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is AB14^T (=AS 1.3730^T=JCM 12889^T).