Rhodohalobacter halophilus gen. nov., sp. nov., a moderately halophilic member of the family Balneolaceae.

A novel Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped, facultatively anaerobic, oxidase-negative and catalase-positive bacterium, designated JZ3C29T, was isolated from a saltern located in Feicheng, PR China. JZ3C29T was tolerant of moderately saline conditions. Optimal growth occurred at 40 °C (range 20-50 °C) and pH 7.5-8.5 (range pH 7.0-9.0) with 8-10 % (w/v) NaCl (range 2-16 %). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that JZ3C29T shared highest similarity with Gracilimonas tropica CL-CB462T (90.5 %), Gracilimonas mengyeensis YIM J14T (90.5 %) and Gracilimonas rosea CL-KR2T (90.4 %) and less than 90.0 % similarity with other species of the phylum Bacteroidetes. The isolate formed a novel genus-level clade in the recently described family Balneolaceae. The polar lipid profile of the novel isolate consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, three unidentified glycolipids, four unidentified phospholipids and two unidentified lipids. The dominant cellular fatty acids (>10 %) were summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or iso-C15 : 0 2-OH) and iso-C15 : 0 and the sole respiratory quinone was menaquinone 7 (MK-7). The DNA G+C content of JZ3C29T was 44.4 mol%. On the basis of these phenotypic and phylogenetic data, JZ3C29T should be classified as representing a novel genus and species within the family Balneolaceae, for which the name Rhodohalobacter halophilus gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is JZ3C29T (=MCCC 1H00131T=KCTC 52046T=JCM 31413T).