Litoribacter ruber gen. nov., sp. nov., an alkaliphilic, halotolerant bacterium isolated from a soda lake sediment.

A novel alkaliphilic, halotolerant, rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain YIM CH208(T), was isolated from a soda lake in Yunnan, south-west China. The taxonomy of strain YIM CH208(T) was investigated by a polyphasic approach. Strain YIM CH208(T) was Gram-negative, strictly aerobic and non-motile and formed red colonies. Optimal growth conditions were 28°C, pH8.5 and 0.5-2.5 % NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons showed that the isolate formed a distinct line within a clade containing the genus Echinicola in the phylum Bacteroidetes and was related to the species Echinicola pacifica and Rhodonellum psychrophilum, with sequence similarity of 91.7 and 91.6 % to the respective type strains. The DNA G+C content was 45.1 mol%. The major respiratory quinone was menaquinone-7 (MK-7). The predominant cellular fatty acids were iso-C(17 : 1)ω9c (19.9 %), C(15 : 0) 3-OH (12.1 %), iso-C(17 : 0) 3-OH (11.3 %), summed feature 3 (iso-C(15 : 0) 2-OH and/or C(16 : 1)ω7c; 10.7 %) and C(17 : 1)ω6c (8.7 %). On the basis of the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data, strain YIM CH208(T) represents a novel species of a new genus, for which the name Litoribacter ruber gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Litoribacter ruber is YIM CH208(T) (=ACCC 05414(T) =KCTC 22899(T)).