Salinisphaera halophila sp. nov., a moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from brine of a salt well.

A Gram-stain-negative, moderately halophilic, strictly aerobic bacterium, designated YIM 95161T, was isolated from brine of a salt well in Yunnan province, China, and subjected to a taxonomic study using a polyphasic approach. Cells of strain YIM 95161T were short rods, approximately 0.9–1.4 µm long and 0.4–0.6 µm wide. Strain YIM 95161T grew at 15–40 °C (optimum, 25–30 °C), 6–29 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 14–19 %) and at pH 5.0–8.0 (optimum, pH 7.0). The predominant isoprenoid quinone was Q-8. The major fatty acids (>10 %) were summed feature 8 (C18 : 1ω6c and/or C18 : 1ω7c) and C14 : 0. The polar lipids consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, one unknown phosphoglycolipid and two unknown lipids. The DNA G+C content was 69.5 %. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain YIM 95161T was a member of the genus Salinisphaera and exhibited sequence similarities of 96.7 %, 95.6 % and 95.4 % to Salinisphaera shabanensis E1L3AT, Salinisphaera dokdonensis CL-ES53T and Salinisphaera hydrothermalis EPR70T, respectively. On the basis of phylogenetic, physiological and chemotaxonomic analysis, strain YIM 95161T represents a novel species of the genus Salinisphaera , for which the name Salinisphaera halophila sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM 95161T ( = CCTCC AB 2011132T = JCM 17431T).