Halorubrum xinjiangense sp. nov., a novel halophile isolated from saline lakes in China

A novel halophilic archaeon, strain BD-1^T, was isolated from Xiao-Er-Kule Lake in Xinjiang, China. The taxonomy of strain BD-1^T was studied by polyphasic methods. According to 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, strain BD-1^T was phylogenetically related to Halorubrum trapanicum (98·4 %), Halorubrum sodomense (98·0 %), Halorubrum distributum (97·8 %) and Halorubrum coriense (97·3 %). Strain BD-1^T is able to grow at 10 °C and further differs physiologically from the above species in the assimilation of sugars. The G+C content of DNA is 68·0 % (T_m). The DNADNA relatedness values to Hrr. trapanicum and Hrr. distributum are 47 and 24 %, respectively. It is concluded that strain BD-1^T represents a novel species of the genus Halorubrum, for which the name Halorubrum xinjiangense sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is BD-1^T (=AS 1.3527^T=JCM 12388^T).