BioProject

Two morphologically similar halophilic strains named USBA 874 and USBA 960T were isolated from water and sediment samples from the Zipaquirá salt mine in the Colombian Andes. Both isolates were non-spore-forming, Gram-negative staining and motile cells growing aerobically. The strains grew optimally at 30 ° C, pH 7.0 and 25 % NaCl (w/v). These isolates showed an almost identical sequence of the 16S rRNA gene (99.0% similarity). The predominant quinones of USBA-960T were Q-8, Q-7 and Q-9. The major cellular fatty acids were C19:0 cyclo ω8c, C18:0 and C16:0. The closest relatives are Salinisphaera species (similarity between 93.6 and 92.3%), Abyssibacter profundi OUC007T (88.6%) and Oceanococcus atlanticus 22II-S10r2T (88.7%). In addition, the Genome BLAST Distance Phylogeny Method (GBDP) analysis between strains USBA 874, USBA-960T, Salinisphaera halophila (YIM 95161T), Salinisphaera shabanensis (E1L3AT), Salinisphaera orenii (MK-B5T), and Salinisphaera japonica (YTM-1T) was  18.5%. Other in silico species delineation analysis also showed low identity such as ANIb and ANIm values (< 69.0 and  84.0% respectively), TETRA ( 0.81) and AAI (< 0.67). Genome sequencing of USBA 960T revealed a genome size of 2.47 Mbp and a G+C content of 59.71 mol %. Phylogenetic analysis of strains USBA 874 and USBA-960T indicated that these formed a different lineage within the family Salinisphaeraceae. Based on phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, phylogenetic analysis and DNA–DNA relatedness values, along with identity at whole genome level, it can be concluded that the strain USBA-960T represents a novel genus of the Salinisphaeraceae family and, the name Salifodinibacter halophilum gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is USBA 960T