gen. nov., sp. nov., a halophilic gammaproteobacterium in the family isolated from a salt mine in the Colombian Andes.

Two morphologically similar halophilic strains, named USBA 874 and USBA 960, were isolated from water and sediment samples collected from the Zipaquirá salt mine in the Colombian Andes. Both isolates had non-spore-forming, Gram-stain-negative and motile cells that grew aerobically. The strains grew optimally at 30 °C, pH 7.0 and with 25 % NaCl (w/v). The isolates showed almost identical 16S rRNA gene sequences (99.0 % similarity). The predominant quinones of USBA-960 were Q-8, Q-7 and Q-9. The major cellular fatty acids were C cyclo 8, C and C. According to 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the closest phylogenetic relatives are species (similarity between 93.6 and 92.3 %), OUC007 (88.6 %) and 22II-S10r2 (88.7 %). In addition, the result of genome blast distance phylogeny analysis between strains USBA 874 and USBA 960, (YIM 95161), (E1L3A), (MK-B5) and (YTM-1) was 18.5 %. Other species delineation analyses also showed low identity such as ANIb and ANIm values (<69.0 and <84.0 % respectively), TETRA (<0.81) and AAI values (<0.67). Genome sequencing of USBA 960 revealed a genome size of 2.47 Mbp and a G+C content of 59.71 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis of strains USBA 874 and USBA 960 indicated that they formed a different lineage within the family . Based on phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, phylogenetic analysis and DNA-DNA relatedness values, along with identity at whole genome level, it can be concluded that strains USBA 960 and USBA 874 represent a novel genus of the family and the name gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is USBA 960 (CMPUJ U095=CECT 30006).