Haloferula luteola sp. nov., an endophytic bacterium isolated from the root of a halophyte, Rosa rugosa, and emended description of the genus Haloferula

A Gram-negative, non-spore-forming, endophytic bacterium, strain YC6886T, was isolated from the root of a halophyte,Rosa rugosa, which inhabits coastal areas of Namhae Island off the southern coast of Korea. Cells were non-motile, obligately aerobic rods and formed pale-yellow colonies. The isolate grew at 4–32 °C (optimum 25–28 °C) and at pH 6.5–9.5 (optimum pH 7.5) and grew optimally with 2–3 % (w/v) NaCl, but NaCl was not an absolute requirement for growth. Strain YC6886Tproduced yellow carotenoid pigments. Strain YC6886Texhibited the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity withHaloferula sargassicolaMN1-1037T(97.4 %). Sequence similarities between strain YC6886Tand other members of the genusHaloferulawere 93.9–94.7 %. DNA–DNA relatedness between strain YC6886TandH. sargassicolaKCTC 22202TandHaloferula roseaKCTC 22201Twas 27 and 15 %, respectively. The major fatty acids were iso-C14 : 0, C16 : 0and C16 : 1ω9cand minor components were C14 : 0, C18 : 0and anteiso-C15 : 0. The major respiratory quinone was menaquinone 9 and the DNA G+C content was 58.5 mol%. The polar lipid profile was composed of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, an unknown phospholipid and an unknown phosphoglycolipid. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, DNA–DNA hybridization and phylogenetic analysis, strain YC6886Trepresents a novel species in the genusHaloferula, for which the nameHaloferula luteolasp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YC6886T( = KCTC 22447T = DSM 21608T). An emended description of the genusHaloferulais also presented.