Halomonas andesensis sp. nov., a moderate halophile isolated from the saline lake Laguna Colorada in Bolivia.

Strain LC6T was isolated from a water sample of the lake Laguna Colorada in the Bolivian Andes. The bacterium was characterized as moderately halophilic, motile, Gram-negative rod. The major fatty acids present in the cell were C18:1omega7c, C16:1omega7c iso 2-OH, C16:0 and C12:0 3-OH. The respiratory ubiquinones found in strain LC6T were Q-9 (97%) and Q-8 (3%). The organism was found to be an aerobic, heterotroph, able to utilize various carbohydrates and other substrates as carbon source. The G+C content (mol %) of the genomic DNA was 52.5. The organism was able to grow in the pH range of 6.0-11.0 (optimum between 7.0-8.0), temperature of 4-45 degrees C (optimum at 30-35 degrees C) and sodium chloride concentration of 0.5-20 % (w/v) (optimum between 1-3% w/v). Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, LC6T was 98.8 % similar to Halomonas hydrothermalis DSM 15725T and Halomonas venusta DSM 4743T, and 98.4 % similar to Halomonas aquamarina DSM 30161T, Halomonas axialensis DSM 15723T and Halomonas meridiana DSM 5425T. However, its DNA-DNA relatedness with these type strains was considerably low. LC6T resembled other Halomonas species with respect to various physiological, biochemical, and nutritional characteristics. Combined phenotypic data and DNA-DNA hybridization data supported the conclusion that LC6T is a novel species of the genus Halomonas, for which the name Halomonas andesensis (LC6T=CCUG 54844T=LMG 24243T = DSM 19434T) is proposed.