Halomonas ventosae sp nov., a moderately halophilic, denitrifying, exopolysaccharide-producing bacterium

Halomonas ventosae sp, nov. includes three moderately halophilic, exopolysaccharide-producing strains isolated from saline soils in Jaen (south-eastern Spain). These strains can grow anaerobically using either nitrate or nitrite as terminal electron acceptor and hydrolyse both tyrosine and phenylalanine. Their G+C content varies between 72.6 and 74.3 mol%. The affiliation of the isolates with the genus Halomonas was confirmed by 16S rRNA gene sequence comparison. DNA-DNA hybridization shows 70.4-82.7% relatedness among the three strains. Nevertheless, their relatedness is less than 43% compared to related reference strains. The proposed type strain for Halomonas ventosae is strain Al12(T) (=CECT 5797(T)=DSM 15911(T)). It grows best at 8% (w/v) sea salts and requires the presence of Na+. Its major fatty acids are 18:1 omega7c, 16:0, 16:1 omega7c, and 15:0 iso 2-OH. The predominant respiratory lipoquinone found in strain Al12(T) is ubiquinone with nine isoprene units (Q-9).