Halorubrum orientale sp nov., a halophilic Archaeon isolated from Lake Ejinor, inner Mongolia, China

A motile, pleomorphic, red-pigmented archaeon, strain EJ-52(T), was isolated from water from Lake Ejinor, a saline lake in Inner Mongolia, China. Analysis of the almost-complete 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that the isolate was phylogenetically related to species of the genus Halorubrum, being most closely related to Halorubrum saccharovorum ATCC 29252(T) (96.1% sequence similarity), Halorubrum lacusprofundi JCM 8891(T) (95.9%), Halorubrum tibetense AS 1.3239(T) (95.2%) Halorubrum alcaliphilum AS 1.3528(T) (95.2%) and Halorubrum vacuolatum JCM 9060(T) (95.1%) The polar lipids of strain EJ-52(T) were C20C20 derivatives of phosphaticlylglycerol phosphate and phosphaticlylglycerol phosphate methyl ester and a sulfated diglycosyl diether. Strain EJ-52(T) requires at least 2.5 M NaCl for growth and grows optimally at 3.4 M NaCl. The strain grows at 25-50 degrees C, with optimal growth occurring at 35-45 degrees C. Mg2+ is not required. The DNA G + C content is 64.2 mol%. On the basis of the data obtained in this study, strain EJ52(T) represents a novel species, for which the name Halorubrum orientale sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is EJ-52(T) (= CECT 7145(T) = JCM 13889(T) = CGMCC 1.6295(T)).