sp. nov., a moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from a soda lake.

A Gram-stain-positive, aerobic, endospore-forming and rod-shaped bacterium (KQ-3), which grew at 10-45 °C (optimum 35 °C), pH 8.0-10.5 (optimum pH 9.0) and in the presence of 0-16 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum 3.0 %), was isolated from a soda lake and identified as representing a novel species using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Strain KQ-3 was catalase-positive, oxidase-negative and non-motile. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence affiliated KQ-3 to the genus and showed the highest similarities to M30 (97.90 %), K1-5 (97.84 %) and FJAT-45347 (97.22 %). Digital DNA-DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity analyses revealed that KQ-3 displayed 21.4 and 72.81% genomic DNA relatedness with the most closely related strain, M30, respectively. KQ-3 contained all of the conserved signature indels that are specific for members of the genus . The DNA G+C content was 45.03 mol%. The cell-wall peptidoglycan contained -diaminopimelic acid and the polar lipids consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and one unidentified phospholipid. The predominant menaquinone was MK-7 (100%) and the major fatty acids (>10 %) comprised anteiso-C, iso-C and iso-C. Based on the data from the current polyphasic studies, KQ-3 represents a novel species of the genus , for which the name sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is KQ-3 (=ACCC 61799=KCTC 33933).