Halomonas alimentaria sp. nov., isolated from jeotgal, a traditional Korean fermented seafood.

A gram-negative, moderately halophilic bacterial strain, YKJ-16T, which was isolated from jeotgal, a traditional Korean food, was considered to be a member of the genus Halomonas. Cells of strain YKJ-16T are non-motile and cocci or short rods, unlike most Halomonas species. However, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that strain YKJ-16T belongs to the genus Halomonas. The predominant isoprenoid quinone is ubiquinone-9. The major fatty acids are C18.1omega7c, C16:0, C19:0 cyclo omega8c and C16:1omega7c and/or iso C15:0 20H. The phylogenetic tree showed that strain YKJ-16T forms a distinct evolutionary lineage within the radiation comprising Halomonas species and forms a coherent cluster with Halomonas halodenitrificans, Halomonas cupida and Halomonas pacifica. Levels of 16S rDNA similarity between strain YKJ-16T and the type strains of other Halomonas species are 93.0-96.3%. Levels of DNA-DNA relatedness indicate a taxonomic status of strain YKJ-16T as a species different from the three species that form the coherent cluster mentioned above. Morphologically, strain YKJ-16T is also clearly differentiated from the type strains of H. cupida and H. pacifica. Accordingly, on the basis of the phenotypic characteristics, 16S rDNA sequence analysis and DNA relatedness data, strain YKJ-16T should be placed in the genus Halomonas as a novel species. The name Halomonas alimentaria sp. nov. is proposed with strain YKJ-16T (= KCCM 41042T = JCM 10888T) as the type strain.