Halomonas kribbensis sp. nov., a novel moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from a solar saltern in Korea

A moderately halophilic, Gram-negative bacterium, designated strain BH843(T), was isolated from a solar saltern in Korea and subjected to a taxonomic analysis. Strain BH843(T) grew at salinities of 1-14 % (w/v) NaCl and at temperatures of 10-40 degrees C. The cells were motile cocci or short rods with single flagella and contained C(16 : 0), C(19 : 0) cyclo omega8c and C(17 : 0) cyclo as the major fatty acids. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 66 mol% and the predominant ubiquinone was Q-9. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses showed that strain BH843(T) formed a distinct phyletic line within the genus Halomonas, and the levels of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with respect to recognized Halomonas species were below 95.1 %. The levels of DNA-DNA relatedness between strain BH843(T) and the type strains of phylogenetically closely related Halomonas species were below 25 %. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and molecular data, strain BH843(T) represents a novel species within the genus Halomonas, for which the name Halomonas kribbensis is proposed. The type strain is BH843(T) (=KCTC 12584(T)=DSM 17892(T)).