sp. nov., a moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from sediment of a crystallizing pond of a saltern.

Two Gram-stain-negative, moderately halophilic bacteria, designated strains ECH52 and KHM46, were isolated from the sediment of a grey saltern located in Sinui island at Shinan, Korea. The isolates were aerobic, non-motile, short rods and grew at 15-45 °C (optimum, 37 °C), at pH 6.0-10.0 (optimum, pH 8.0) and with 3-25 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 10 % NaCl). Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strains ECH52 and KHM46 belonged to the genus in the family with sequence similarities of 94.3-98.6 % and showed the highest sequence similarity to 2W32 (98.6 %), YIM J21 (94.7%), KHM44 (94.6 %) and YIM D15 (94.3 %). The DNA G+C content of the genomic DNA of strain ECH52 was 40.8 mol%. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was menaquinone-7 (MK-7) and the major cellular fatty acids were iso-Cω9, iso-C, and Cω7 and/or iso-C 2-OH. The major polar lipids were identified as diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, two unidentified glycolipids and four unidentified lipids. Based on the phylogenetic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic data, strains ECH52 and KHM46 are considered to represent a novel species of the genus for which the name sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ECH52 (=KACC 19126=NBRC 112664).