Halosarcina limi sp. nov., a halophilic archaeon from a marine solar saltern, and emended description of the genus Halosarcina

Abstract

Halosarcina limi sp. nov., a halophilic archaeon from a marine solar saltern, and emended description of the genus Halosarcina A halophilic archaeon, strain RO1-6 T , was isolated from a marine solar saltern in eastern China.Cells of strain RO1-6 T were pleomorphic and motile and stained Gram-negative. Strain RO1-6 T grew well on complex medium and colonies were red-pigmented. It was able to grow at 20-50 6C (optimum 37 6C), in 2.1-5.1 M NaCl (optimum 3.9 M NaCl), in 0.05-0.70 M MgCl 2 (optimum 0.30 M MgCl 2 ) and at pH 6.5-8.0 (optimum pH 7.0). Cells lysed in distilled water and the minimal NaCl concentration to prevent cell lysis was 12 % (w/v). The major polar lipids of strain RO1-6 T were phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol phosphate methyl ester and two glycolipids that were chromatographically identical to S-DGD-1 and S 2 -DGD. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain RO1-6 T showed similarities of 96.9 and 96.4 % to those of the type strains of Halosarcina pallida and Halogeometricum borinquense, respectively, members of the most closely related recognized genera within the family Halobacteriaceae. The DNA G+C content of strain RO1-6 T was 61.2 mol%. Phenotypic characterization and phylogenetic analysis revealed that strain RO1-6 T is related to Halosarcina pallida and represents a novel species of the genus Halosarcina, for which the name Halosarcina limi sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain is RO1-6 T (5CGMCC 1.8711 T 5JCM 16054 T ).More than 100 marine solar salterns, artificial shallow ponds for the production of sea salt from seawater, are located in tropical and subtropical offshore areas along 18 000 km of coast of marginal sea in eastern China. These solar salterns mainly consist of three kinds of ponds, evaporation ponds, concentration ponds and crystallizer ponds, in which diverse halotolerant and halophilic microorganisms survive. Halophilic archaea are often distributed in concentration ponds and crystallizer ponds (Cui et al., 2007;Xu et al., 2007). To understand better the halophilic archaeal diversity of marine solar salterns of eastern China, water and sediment samples were collected from several marine solar salterns and low-nutrient medium was used for the isolation of micro-organisms. The taxonomy of strain RO1-6 T , which represents a novel species in the genus Halosarcina of the family Halobacteriaceae, was determined in this study.Strain RO1-6 T was isolated from saline soil of Rudong marine solar saltern (32.2699u N 121.3999u E), Jiangsu Province, China. The neutral oligotrophic haloarchaeal medium (NOM) used for the isolation procedure was modified according to the DBCM2 medium from the online Halohandbook (Dyall-Smith, 2008) and contained the following ingredients (g l The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain RO1-6 T is EU931577.A phase-contrast light micrograph of cells of strain RO1-6 T , TLC plates showing polar lipids and a maximum-parsimony phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences are available as supplementary material wit...

Phylogenetic Diversities and Community Structure of Members of the Extremely Halophilic Archaea (Order Halobacteriales) in Multiple Saline Sediment Habitats

“…Prior studies have identified members of the Halorubrum and Haloquadratum and, in some samples, Halonotius, Natrinema, and Haloferax as dominant members of crystallizer salterns (8,45,47), while in our study, members of the recently described genera Halogranum, Halolamina, Halosarcina Halorientalis, and Haloplanus represented a major fraction of the Halobacteriales community in multiple habitats (e.g., 60.8, 66.4, 41.1, and 49.4% in MAN, ZDT, CAR, and SPL, respectively). This attests to the relevance and significance of recent efforts for the isolation and characterization of novel Halobacteriales genera in various habitats beyond typical hypersaline water bodies (14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)59). Unfortunately, aside from standard information presented in species description papers, little information is available regarding the physiological capabilities, adaptive mechanisms, and genomic characteristics of these genera.…”

“…Halorientalis-affiliated sequences were abundant members (Ͼ5%) of the Great Salt Plains, mangrove, and Great Salt Lake sediments (Table 2). Finally, members of the genus Halosarcina were originally isolated from Zodletone Spring (59) and subsequently identified in Chinese salterns (21). Halosarcinaaffiliated sequences, however, represented only 2% of the Halobacteriales community at Zodletone Spring (Table 2) but were present in relatively high abundance in SPL and CAR samples.…”

“…One of the more surprising finding of this study is the relatively low abundance yet extremely high levels of alpha and beta diversity of sequences unaffiliated with any of the 38 currently recognized archaeal genera. The low percentage of novel sequences within all data sets examined in this study is due to the recent success in isolating and describing novel genera from multiple soil and sediment habitats (14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)59). It is also a function of implementation of a local Blast approach against a curated data set of all validly described Halobacteriales sequences as detailed in Materials and Methods.…”

Taxonomic study of the genera Halogeometricum and Halosarcina : transfer of Halosarcina limi and Halosarcina pallida to the genus Halogeometricum as Halogeom

“…The description is identical to that of Halosarcina limi given by Cui et al (2010b). The type strain is RO1-6 T ( = CGMCC 1.8711 T  = JCM 16054 T ).…”

“…The strains were routinely grown aerobically at 37 °C in NOM medium (Cui et al , 2011a). Phenotypic tests were performed according to the proposed minimal standards for description of new taxa in the order Halobacteriales (Oren et al , 1997).…”