Wei-Dong Xu, Wen-Jiao Zhang, Dong Han, Heng-Lin Cui, Kun Yang

School of Pharmacy, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, People’s Republic of China


Abstract

Halophilic archaeal strain YC25^T was isolated from Yuncheng salt lake in Shanxi, China. Cells of strain YC25^T were observed to be pleomorphic rods, stained Gram-negative, and formed red-pigmented colonies on solid media. Strain YC25^T was found to be able to grow at 25–50 °C (optimum 37 °C), at 1.4–4.8 M NaCl (optimum 1.7 M), at 0–1.0 M MgCl₂ (optimum 0.01 M), and at pH 5.5–9.0 (optimum pH 6.5). The cells lysed in distilled water, and the minimal NaCl concentration to prevent cell lysis was found to be 8 % (w/v). The major polar lipids of the strain were phosphatidylglycerol (PG), phosphatidylglycerol phosphate methyl ester (PGP-Me), phosphatidylglycerol sulfate (PGS), sulfated galactosyl mannosyl glucosyl diether (S-TGD-1), sulfated mannosyl glucosyl diether (S-DGD-1), galactosyl mannosyl glucosyl diether (TGD-1), mannosyl glucosyl diether (DGD-1), and an unknown diglycosyl diether (DGD-2) chromatographically identical to those of Halorussus rarus CGMCC 1.10122T. The 16S rRNA gene and rpoB′ gene of strain YC25^T were phylogenetically related to the corresponding genes of Halorussus rarus CGMCC 1.10122T (94.3–95.4 and 91.5 % nucleotide identity, respectively). The DNA G+C content of strain YC25^T was determined to be 63.3 mol%. The phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, and phylogenetic properties suggested that strain YC25^T (=CGMCC 1.12122^T = JCM 18363^T) represents a new species of Halorussus, for which the name Halorussus ruber sp. nov. is proposed.

 

Keywords:Halorussus ruber sp. nov., Halophilic archaeon, Salt lake .