The halophilic archaeal strain, YC82(T), was isolated from Yuncheng salt lake in Shanxi, PR China. Cells from strain YC82(T) were Gram-stain negative, pleomorphic rods, which lysed in distilled water and formed light-red colonies on solid media. Strain YC82(T) grew at 25-50 °C (optimum 37 °C), in 1.4-4.8 M NaCl (optimum 2.0 M), in 0-1.0 M MgCl2 (optimum 0.05 M) and at pH 6.0-9.5 (optimum pH 7.5). The major polar lipids of strain YC82(T) were phosphatidic acid, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol phosphate methyl ester, phosphatidylglycerol sulfate and three glycolipids, which were chromatographically identical to those of Haloarchaeobius iranensis IBRC-M 10013(T) and Haloarchaeobius litoreus CGMCC 1.10390(T). 16S rRNA gene analysis revealed that strain YC82(T) had two dissimilar 16S rRNA genes and that it was phylogenetically related to Hab. iranensis IBRC-M 10013(T) (94.3-99.0 % nucleotide identity) and Hab. litoreus CGMCC 1.10390(T) (94.1-98.8 % nucleotide identity). The rpoB' gene similarities between strain YC82(T) and Hab. iranensis IBRC-M 10013(T) and Hab. litoreus CGMCC 1.10390(T) were 96.5 % and 95.7 %, respectively. The DNA G+C content of strain YC82(T) was 63.7 mol%. Strain YC82(T) showed low DNA-DNA relatedness with Hab. iranensis IBRC-M 10013(T) and Hab. litoreus CGMCC 1.10390(T). The phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic properties of strain YC82(T) ( = CGMCC 1.12232(T) = JCM 18644(T)) suggest that it represents a novel species of the genus Haloarchaeobius, for which the name Haloarchaeobius salinus sp. nov. is proposed. An emended description of the genus Haloarchaeobius is also presented.
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