Halorubrum salipaludis sp. nov., isolated from the saline-alkaline soil

A novel extremely halophilic archaeon, designated WN019^T, was isolated from the natural saline-alkali wetland soil of Binhai new district, Tianjin, China. Cells of WN019^T were aerobic, motile, and pleomorphic rod-shaped, 0.5-0.8 µm in width and 2.0-2.5 µm in length, and the growth occurred optimally at 33-37 °C, pH 7.5-8.0, and in the presence of 15.0-20.0% (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequence comparison showed that the isolate belonged to the genus Halorubrum and exhibited moderate sequence similarity of 97.8% to Halorubrum saccharovorum JCM 8865^T. The major respiratory quinones of strain WN019^T were MK-8 and MK-8 (H₂), and the major polar lipids were glycolipid (GL), phospholipid (PL), phosphatidylglycerol-sulphate (PGS), phosphatidylglycerol (PG) and phosphatidylglycerol-phosphate-methyl ester (Me-PGP). The DNA G + C content of the strain was 67.4 mol%. The average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) value based on whole genome sequences of strain WN019^T and Halorubrum saccharovorum JCM 8865^T were 87.5% and 35.4%, respectively. Phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, phylogenetic, and genomic analyses suggested that strain WN019^T represents a novel species of the genus Halorubrum, for which the name Halorubrum salipaludis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is WN019^T (= KCTC 4269^T = ACCC 19977^T).