Halorubrum pallidum sp. nov., an extremely halophilic archaeon isolated from a subterranean rock salt

An extremely halophilic archaeon, strain PJ61T, was isolated from a subterranean rock salt of Yuanyongjing Salt Mine, Yunnan, China. Colonies were pale, smooth, convex, and round (1.0-2.0 mm in diameter) on nutrient agar plates. Cells of strain PJ61T were spherical or oval , stained Gram-negative, and were non-motile. Optimal growth was observed with 3.4 M NaCl and at 38 °C in aerobic conditions. Mg2+ was required for growth. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities showed that strain PJ61T belonged to the genus Halorubrum and was closely related to Halorubrum laminariae R60T (98.3 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), Halorubrum salinum GX71T (98.2 %) and other species of the genus Halorubrum (<98 %). Sequence similarities of rpoB' gene and ef-2 gene between strain PJ61T and the species of the genus Halorubrum also showed that strain PJ61T was closely related to strain Halorubrum salinum GX71T (93.4 % for rpoB'and 94.8 % for ef-2). The DNA-DNA relatedness between strains PJ61T and Halorubrum laminariae R60T was 33±0.5 %, while it was 37±0.4 % for Halorubrum salinum GX71T. The DNA G+C content of strain PJ61T was 65.1 mol%. The major polar lipids of strain PJ61T consisted of phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol phosphate methyl ester, phosphatidylglycerol sulfate and sulfated mannosyl glucosyl diether. The phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic properties suggest that strain PJ61T represents a novel species of the genus Halorubrum, for which the name Halorubrum pallidum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is PJ61T (=CGMCC 1.15212T =JCM 30955T).