Halovenus salina sp nov., an extremely halophilic archaeon isolated from a saltern

An extremely halophilic archaeon was isolated from a water sample of Isla Bacuta saltern in Huelva, Spain. Strain ASP54(T) is a novel red-pigmented, motile, rod-shaped, Gram-stainnegative and strictly aerobic haloarchaeon. Strain ASP54(T) grew in media containing 15-30 % (w/v) salts and optimally with 25 % (w/v) salts. It grew between pH 5.0 and 9.0 (optimally at pH 7.5) and at 20-40 degrees C (optimally at 37 degrees C). Phylogenetic analysis based on multi-locus sequence analysis (MLSA) and the comparison of 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain ASP54(T) is most closely related to the genus Halovenus. The closest relatives were Halovenus aranensis EB27T (92.1 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), Halorientalis regularis TNN28(T) (92.1 %), and Halorientalis persicus D108(T) (92.0 %). The polar lipid pattern of strain ASP54(T) consisted of biphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol phosphate methyl ester, phosphatidylglycerol sulfate, sulfated mannosyl glucosyl diether and a minor-phospholipid. The predominant respiratory quinone was menaquinone-8 (MK-8) (83 %), and a minor amount of MK-8(VIII-H-2) (17 %) was also detected. The G+C content of the genomic DNA of this strain was 63.1 mol%. Based on the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data presented in this study, strain ASP54T represents a novel species of the genus Halovenus, for which the name Halovenus sauna sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ASP54(T) (=CECT 8749(T)=IBRC-M 10946(T)=JCM 30072(T)).