Salinicola tamaricis sp nov., a heavy-metal-tolerant, endophytic bacterium isolated from the halophyte Tamarix chinensis Lour

A Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped bacterium, strain F01(T), was isolated from leaves of Tamarix chinensis Lour. The isolate grew optimally at 30 degrees C, at pH 7.0 and with 5.0% (w/ v) NaCl, and showed a high tolerance to manganese, lead, nickel, ferrous ions and copper ions. The major fatty acids were C-18 : 1 omega 7c and C-16 : 0, and the predominant respiratory quinone was Q-9. Polar lipids were dominated by diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, unidentified aminoglycolipids and phospholipids. The DNA G+ C content was 65.8 %. Based on multilocus phylogenetic analysis, strain F01(T) belonged to the genus Salinicola, with highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Salinicola peritrichatus CGMCC 1.12381(T) (97.7 %). The level of DNA-DNA hybridization between strain F01(T) and closely related Salinicola strains was well below 70 %. According to the phenotypic, genetic and chemotaxonomic data, strain F01(T) is considered to represent a novel species in the genus Salinicola, for which the name Salinicola tamaricis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is F01(T) (= CCTCC AB 2015304(T) = KCTC 42855(T)).