Description of Sp. Nov., a Halophilic Bacterium Isolated from Lake Sediment, and Emended Description of the Genus

A Gram-stain-positive, strictly aerobic, motile and rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain LJ137, was isolated from the sediment of Taihu Lake in China. A polyphasic approach was used to investigate its taxonomic position. Strain LJ137 grew optimally at pH 7.5, at 37 °C and with 2.5 % (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain LJ137 was most closely related to the genera and . The closest phylogenetic neighbours were KCTC 13822, LCB256 and KCTC 13823, with 95.2, 96.5 and 95.6 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, respectively. The peptidoglycan amino acid type was A4 (l-Lys-d-Asp). The major respiratory quinone was menaquinone-7 (MK-7). The polar lipids of strain LJ137 contained diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, three unidentified phospholipids, two aminophospholipids and one unidentified lipid. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 40.4 mol%. The dominant cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C, anteiso-C and iso-C. Based on the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, phylogenetic and genome sequence characteristics of this strain, a novel species, sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is LJ137 (=CGMCC 1.13678=NBRC 113552). An emended description of the genus is presented.