Abstract
A halophilic, Gram-staining-negative, rod-shaped, flagellated and motile bacterium, strain QX-1T, was isolated from deep-sea sediment at a depth of 3332 m in the southwestern Indian Ocean. Strain QX-1T growth was observed at 4–50 °C (optimum 37 °C), pH 5.0–11.0 (optimum pH 7.0), 3%–25% NaCl (w/v; optimum 7%), and it did not grow without NaCl. A phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene placed strain QX-1T in the genus Halomonas and most closely related to Halomonas sulfidaeris (97.90%), Halomonas zhaodongensis (97.80%), Halomonas songnenensis (97.59%), Halomonas hydrothermalis (97.37%), Halomonas subterranea (97.25%), Halomonas salicampi (97.09%), and Halomonas arcis (97.01%). DNA–DNA hybridization (< 26.50%) and average nucleotide identity values (< 83.54%) between strain QX-1T and the related type strains meet the accepted criteria for a new species. The principal fatty acids (> 10%) of strain QX-1T are C16:0 (25.50%), C17:0 cyclo (14.02%), C19:0 cyclo ω8c (18.72%), and summed feature 8 (C18:1 ω7c and/or C18:1 ω6c, 18.08%). The polar lipids of strain QX-1T are mainly diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, unidentified phospholipid, unidentified aminophospholipid, and five unidentified lipids. The main respiratory quinone is Q-9. The G+C content of its chromosomal DNA is 54.4 mol%. Its fatty acid profile, respiratory quinones, and G+C content also support the placement of QX-1T in the genus Halomonas. These phylogenetic, phenotypic, and chemotaxonomic analyses indicate that QX-1T is a novel species, for which the name Halomonas maris is proposed. The type strain is QX-1T (=MCCC 1A17875T = KCTC 82198T = NBRC 114670T).
Halomonas Maris Sp. Nov., a Moderately Halophilic Bacterium Isolated From Marine Sediment in the Southwest Indian Ocean
