Haloprofundus marisrubri gen. nov., sp nov., an extremely halophilic archaeon isolated from a brine-seawater interface

We isolated a Gram-stain-negative, pink-pigmented, motile, pleomorphic, extremely halophilic archaeon from the brine-seawater interface of Discovery Deep in the Saudi Arabian Red Sea. This strain, designated SB9(T), was capable of growth within a wide range of temperatures and salinity, but required MgCl2. Cells lysed in distilled water, but at 7.0% (w/v) NaCl cell lysis was prevented. The major polar lipids from strain SB9(T) were phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerolphosphate methyl ester, sulfated mannosyl glucosyl diether, mannosyl glucosyl diether, an unidentified glycolipid and two unidentified phospholipids. The major respiratory quinones of strain SB9(T) were menaquinones MK8 (66%) and MK8 (VIII-H2) (34%). Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that strain SB9T was closely related to species in the genera Halogranum and Haloplanus; in particular, it shared highest sequence similarity with the type strain of Halogranum rubrum (93.4 %), making it its closest known relative. The unfinished draft genome of strain SB9(T) was 3 931 127 bp in size with a total G+C content of 62.53 mol% and contained 3917 ORFs, 50 tRNAs and eight rRNAs. Based on comparisons with currently available genomes, the highest average nucleotide identity value was 83% to Halogranum salarium B-1(T) (GenBank accession no. GCA_000283335.1). These data indicate that this new isolate cannot be classified into any recognized genera of the family Haloferacaceae, and therefore strain SB9(T) is considered to be a representative of a novel species of a new genus within this family, for which the name Haloprofundus marisrubri gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Haloprofundus marisrubri is SB9(T) (=JCM 19565(T) =CGMCC 1.14959(T)).