Halomonas shengliensis sp. nov., a moderately halophilic, denitrifying, crude-oil-utilizing bacterium

A moderately halophilic bacterium, designated strain SL014B-85 T , was isolated from a crude-oil-contaminated saline soil from Shengli oilfield, Shandong Province, China. Cells were Gram-negative, aerobic, short rods with lateral flagella. Growth occurred at NaCl concentrations of 0–15 % (optimum 5–15 %), at 10–42 °C (optimum 30 °C) and at pH 8.0–9.0 (optimum pH 8.5). The only respiratory quinone was Q9, and the main cellular fatty acids were C 18 : 1 ω 7 c , C 16 : 0 and C 19 : 0 cyclo ω 8c. The G+C content of the DNA was 66.6 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain SL014B-85 T belonged to the genus Halomonas in the Gammaproteobacteria , with highest sequence similarity of 98.1 and 97.8 % to Halomonas alimentaria DSM 15356 T and Halomonas ventosae DSM 15911 T , respectively. DNA–DNA relatedness values were below 40 % with members of closely related Halomonas species. Results of phenotypic, biochemical and phylogenetic analyses revealed that strain SL014B-85 T could be classified as representing a novel species of the genus Halomonas , for which the name Halomonas shengliensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SL014B-85 T (=CGMCC 1.6444 T =LMG 23897 T ).