Halomonas azerbaijanica sp. nov., a halophilic bacterium isolated from Urmia Lake after the 2015 drought

A novel, slightly halophilic bacterium, designated TBZ202 , was isolated from water of Urmia Lake, in the Azerbaijan region of north-west Iran. The strain was facultatively anaerobic, Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped and motile. Colonies were creamy, circular, convex and shiny. It grew at NaCl concentrations of 0-12 % (w/v) (optimum 3-5 % w/v), at temperatures of 20-45 °C (optimum 30 °C) and at pH 5.0-10.0 (optimum pH 7.0). Based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence, strain TBZ202 belongs to the genus in the and the most closely related species are CGMCC 1.6133 (98.6 % similarity), Al12 (96.8 %) and RS-16 (96.6%). The G+C content was 67.9 % and the digital DNA-DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity values with were 35.8 and 83.8 %, respectively, indicating that the isolate differs from all species described. The major fatty acids were C 7 , C and C 7 . The only respiratory quinone detected was Q-9 and polar lipids consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, aminophospholipid and three unknown phospholipids. On the basis of a polyphasic taxonomic analysis, the isolate is considered to represent a novel species of the genus , for which the name sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is TBZ202 (=KCTC 62817 =CECT 9693 ).