Halomonas stevensii sp. nov., Halomonas hamiltonii sp. nov. and Halomonas johnsoniae sp. nov., isolated from a renal care centre.

A total of 14 Halomonas strains were isolated from the blood of two patients and from dialysis machines of a renal care centre. The strains were Gram-negative, halophilic, motile and non-spore-forming rods. They produced cream-coloured colonies and contained Q-9 as the predominant ubiquinone and C(18 : 1)omega7c and C(16 : 0) as the major fatty acids. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing showed that the 14 isolates were most closely related to Halomonas magadiensis 21 MI(T) with 98.1-98.9 % sequence similarity and that they formed three separate lineages among themselves. Combined phenotypic and DNA-DNA hybridization data support the conclusion that they represent three novel species of the genus Halomonas, for which the names Halomonas stevensii sp. nov. (type strain S18214(T)=KCTC 22148(T)=DSM 21198(T)), Halomonas hamiltonii sp. nov. (type strain W1025(T)=KCTC 22154(T)=DSM 21196(T)) and Halomonas johnsoniae sp. nov. (type strain T68687(T)=KCTC 22157(T)=DSM 21197(T)) are proposed.