2026/02/17 by Yue Ding, Ya‐Ling Mao, Aodi Zhang +7 · 1 voice
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Environmental Science · #Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies #Metal Extraction and Bioleaching #Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
paper · doi:10.1099/ijsem.0.007081
openalex publication_date 2026/02/17 · openalex created_date 2026/02/18 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
An erratum of this article has been published full details can be found at 10.1099/ijsem.0.007117 Two halophilic archaeal strains, AD34 T and PAK95, were isolated from a salt mine in Yunnan and rock salt in Jiangsu, two provinces in China that are 2,000 km apart, respectively. Cells of strain AD34 T were spherical while those of PAK95 were rod-shaped. Strains AD34 T and PAK95 were Gram-stain-negative, aerobic and able to grow at 1.4–4.8 M NaCl (with optimum at 3.1 M NaCl), pH 5.0–9.0 (optimum, pH 7.5) and 20–60 °C (optimum, 37 °C and 40 °C, respectively). Their 16S rRNA gene sequences showed the closest similarity to Haloparvum sedimenti DYS4 T , with similarities of 95.11% (AD34 T ) and 95.46% (PAK95). The rpoB’ gene sequences of strains AD34 T and PAK95 showed the highest similarity to species of Haloparvum alkalitolerans MK62-1 T with 91.40% (PAK95) and 91.53% (AD34 T ) identity. Comprehensive phylogenetic analyses revealed that strains AD34 T and PAK95 form a robust, monophyletic clade with 100% bootstrap support, clearly distinct from related genera, particularly from the genus Haloparvum . From whole-genome sequencing, the DNA G+C content of AD34 T and PAK95 is 66.5 and 66.4 mol%, respectively, while that of DYS4 T and MK62-1 T is 68.3 and 69.1 mol%, respectively. The average nucleotide identity between AD34 T , PAK95 and the family Haloferacaceae ranged from 66.5 to 79.2%. The digital DNA–DNA hybridization values ranged from 19.6 to 32.8%, while the average amino acid identity (AAI) values were between 58.0 and 72.0%. Strains AD34 T and PAK95 may represent a novel species of a novel genus within the family Haloferacaceae , as judged by the AAI cutoff value (≤72.1%) proposed for differentiating genera within this family. The major polar lipids of strain AD34 T were phosphatidylglycerol (PG), PG phosphate methyl ester, PG sulphate and sulphated mannosyl glucosyl diether. Based on the phenotypic and phylogenetic analyses, it is proposed that strains AD34 T (=MCCC 4K00176 T =KCTC 4324 T ) and PAK95 (=MCCC 4K00231=CGMCC 1.62791=KCTC 4376) represent a novel genus and species within the family Haloferacaceae , for which the name Halosubterraneus shenae gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is AD34 T .