Halomarina rubra sp. nov., isolated from a marine solar saltern.

Halophilic archaeal strain ZS-47-ST was isolated from Zhoushan marine solar saltern, China. Cells were pleomorphic, stained Gram-negative, and formed red-pigmented colonies on agar plate. Strain ZS-47-ST was able to grow at 20-50 °C (optimum 37 °C), at 0.9-4.8 M NaCl (optimum 3.4 M), at 0.005-1.0 M MgCl2 (optimum 0.03 M), and at pH 5.5-9.5 (optimum pH 6.5-7.5). The cells lysed in distilled water and the minimal NaCl concentration to prevent cell-lysis was 5% (w/v). The major polar lipids were C20 C20 and C20 C25 diether derivatives of phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol phosphate methyl ester, phosphatidylglycerol sulfate, glucosyl mannosyl glucosyl diether, and three unidentified glycolipids. The 16S rRNA gene and rpoB' gene of strain ZS-47-ST were phylogenetically related to the corresponding genes of Halomarina oriensis JCM 16495T (98.57 and 92.94% similarities, respectively) and Halomarina salina CGMCC 1.12543T (97.96 and 93.65% similarities, respectively). The DNA G + C content of strain ZS-47-ST was 64.6 mol % (T m ). The phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, and phylogenetic properties suggested that strain ZS-47-ST (=CGMCC 1.12563T  = JCM 30037T ) represents a new species of Halomarina, for which the name Halomarina rubra sp. nov. is proposed.