Haloplanus rubicundus sp. nov., an extremely halophilic archaeon isolated from solar salt.

Abstract Two extremely halophilic archaea strains, CBA1112T and CBA1113, were isolated from solar salt in Korea. The genome sizes and G + C content of CBA1112T and CBA1113 were 3.77 and 3.53 Mb, and 66.0 and 66.5 mol%, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis based on closely related taxa and environmental Haloplanus sequences indicated that both CBA1112T and CBA1113 strains are grouped within the genus Haloplanus. OrthoANI and in silico DNA–DNA hybridization values were below the species delineation threshold. Pan-genomic analysis showed that the two novel strains and four reference strains had 6203 pan-orthologous groups in total. Six Haloplanus strains shared 1728 core pan-genome orthologous groups, which were mainly associated with amino acid transport and metabolism and translation, ribosomal structure and biogenesis categories, and amino acid metabolism and carbohydrate metabolism related categories. The novel strain-specific pan-genome orthologous groups were mainly involved with replication, recombination and repair category and replication and repair pathway or amino acid metabolism pathway. Cells of both strains were Gram-negative and pleomorphic, and colonies were red-pigmented. The major polar lipids of both strains were phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol phosphate methyl ester, phosphatidylglycerol sulfate, and one glycolipid, sulfated mannosyl glucosyl diether. Based on genomic, phylogenetic, phenotypic, and chemotaxonomic features, strains CBA1112T and CBA1113 are described as novel species of the genus Haloplanus. Thus, we propose the name Haloplanus rubicundus sp. nov. The type strain is CBA1112T (=KCCM 43224T = JCM 30475T).