sp. nov. and sp. nov., two extremely halophilic archaea isolated from Gobi saline soil.

Two extremely halophilic archaeal strains, PSR5 and PSR8, were isolated from a saline soil sample collected from the Tarim Basin, Xinjiang, PR China. Both strains had two copies of the 16S rRNA genes and , showing 2.6 and 3.

sp. nov., sp. nov., sp. nov. and sp. nov., four extremely halophilic archaea isolated from salt mine, saline soil and salt lake.

Four halophilic archaeal strains, YPL8, SLN56, LT61 and KZCA68, were isolated from a salt mine, saline soil and a salt lake located in different regions of China. Sequence similarities of 16S rRNA and genes among strains YPL8, SLN56, LT61 and the current members of were 94.1-98.

Genome-based taxonomy of genera Halomicrobium and Halosiccatus, and description of Halomicrobium salinisoli sp. nov.

The genera Halosiccatus and Halomicrobium are the most closely related genera within the family Haloarculaceae (class Halobacteria). All species of these two genera are closely related to each other in phylogenetic analyses based on their 16S rRNA gene sequences, and also using the sequences of four housekeeping genes. The genus Halosiccatus was proposed based on inferred phylogeny using only one of the three distinct 16S rRNA genes detected in strain DC8, while Halomicrobium zhouii, one of three species of Halomicrobium, was omitted from the reference species used in these analyses.

Haloprofundus salilacus sp. nov., Haloprofundus halobius sp. nov. and Haloprofundus salinisoli sp. nov.: three extremely halophilic archaea isolated from salt lake and saline soil.

Three halophilic archaeal strains, Gai1-5, SEDH52 and SQT7-1 were isolated from Gaize salt lake and Xiadi salt lake in Tibet, and saline soil from Xinjiang, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene and rpoB' gene sequences showed that these three strains formed different branches separating them from Haloprofundus halophilus NK23 (97.7-98.