Halorubrum tibetense sp. nov., a novel haloalkaliphilic archaeon from Lake Zabuye in Tibet, China

1 Department of Microbial Physiology and Ecology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China 2 Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sevilla, 41012 Sevilla, Spain 3 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 9HN, UK Correspondence Yanhe Ma mayanhe{at}sun.im.ac.cn A novel haloalkaliphilic archaeon, strain 8W8 T , was isolated from Lake Zabuye, on the Tibetan Plateau, China. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain 8W8 T was shown to belong to the genus Halorubrum and was related to Halorubrum vacuolatum (96·7 % sequence similarity), Halorubrum saccharovorum (96·0 %), Halorubrum lacusprofundi (95·4 %) and Halorubrum sodomense (95·3 %). The phylogenetic distance from any species within the other genera of Halobacteriales was lower than 90 %. The major polar lipids of strain 8W8 T were C 20 C 20 and C 20 C 25 derivatives of phosphatidylglycerol phosphate and phosphatidylglycerol phosphate methyl ester. The results of DNA–DNA hybridization and physiological and biochemical tests allowed genotypic and phenotypic differentiation of strain 8W8 T from the eight Halorubrum species with validly published names. Therefore, strain 8W8 T represents a novel species, for which the name Halorubrum tibetense sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain 8W8 T (=AS 1.3239 T =JCM 11889 T ). Abbreviations: PG, phosphatidylglycerol; PGP-Me, phosphatidylglycerol phosphate methyl ester; PGS, phosphatidylglycerol sulfate; S-DGD, sulfated diglycosyl diether The GenBank accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain 8W8 T is AY149598 .