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 degrees C, with optimal growth at 42-45 degrees 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)).