Halobacterium jilantaiense sp nov., a halophilic archaeon isolated from a saline lake in Inner Mongolia, China

A novel halophilic archaeon, NG4(T), was isolated from Jilantai salt lake in Inner Mongolia, China. The taxonomy of strain NG4(T) was studied by polyphasic methods. Strain NG4(T) grew at pH 5 center dot 5-8 center dot 5 and at a temperature of 22-55 degrees C. It was chemo-organotrophic, aerobic and required concentrations of 2 center dot 7-5 center dot 2 M NaCl and 0 center dot 05-0 center dot 3 M Mg2+ for growth. Cells were Gram-negative, slender rods. Colonies on agar plates containing 25% (w/v) total salts were red, elevated and round. According to 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, strain NG4(T) was phylogenetically related to Halobacterium salinarum DSM 3754(T) (98 center dot 2%) and Halobacterium noricense A1(T) (97 center dot 3%). The DNA G + C content was 64 center dot 2 mol%. DNA-DNA relatedness values with Hbt. salinarum DSM 3754(T) and Hbt noricense A1(T) were 47 and 35%, respectively. The polar lipids of strain NG4(T) consisted of phosphaticlylglycerol, methylated phosphaticlylglycerol phosphate, phosphatidylglycerol sulfate, triglycosyl diether, sulfated triglycosyl diether and sulfated tetraglycosyl diether. It was concluded that strain NG4(T) represents a novel species of the genus Halobacterium, for which the name Halobacterium jilantaiense sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NG4(T) (=CGMCC 1.5337(T) =JCM 13558(T)).