Halomonas azerica sp. nov., Isolated from Urmia Lake in Iran.

A novel moderately halophilic, Gram-staining negative and facultative aerobic bacterium, designated as TBZ9, was isolated from water of Urmia Lake in Azerbaijan region of Iran. The cells were found to be rod-shaped and motile, growing in the form of creamy, convex and shiny colonies. The strain could grow in the presence of NaCl at concentrations 1-17% (w/v) (optimum, 3%), temperatures 10-40 °C (optimum, 30 °C) and pH 6.0-11.0 (optimum, pH 7.0) on marine agar. Strain TBZ9 16S rRNA gene sequence was related to the genus Halomonas showing highest similarities to Halomonas arcis AJ282 (98.4%), Halomonas songnenensis NEAU-ST10-39 (98.0%) and Halomonas lutescens Q1U (97.8%). In the phylogenetic trees, strain TBZ9 formed a distinct branch closely related to a subclade inside the Halomonas genus. Digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) and average nucleotide identity (ANI) values between strain TBZ9 and H. arcis AJ282 (20.0%, 74.0%) and H. songnenensis NEAU-ST10-39 (19.8%, 75.2%) indicated that TBZ9 represents a distinct species. Evaluation of fatty acid contents determined C, C, C 3-OH, summed feature 3 (C ω7c and/or C ω6c) and summed feature 8 (C ω7c and/or C ω6c) as major cellular fatty acids. The major quinone of strain TBZ9 was Q-9. Polar lipid patterns consisted of phosphatidylglycerol (PG), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), two unidentified phospholipids (PL) and four unidentified polar lipids (L). The average DNA G + C content of strain TBZ9 is 55.4 mol%. Results from phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and molecular analysis suggest that the strain TBZ9 represents a novel species within the genus Halomonas for which the name Halomonas azerica sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is TBZ9 (= KACC 21783 = LMG 25775).