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Haloferax elongans sp. nov. and Haloferax mucosum sp. nov., isolated from microbial mats from Hamelin Pool, Shark Bay, Australia

¹ School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
² Australian Center for Astrobiology, Macquarie University, Building E8C 153, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
³ Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, and Bio-Nano Electronics Research Center, Toyo University, 2100 Kujirai, Kawagoe, Saitama 350-8585, Japan
⁴ Halophiles Research Institute, 677-1 Shimizu, Noda, Chiba 278-0043, Japan

Correspondence
Brett A. Neilan
b.neilan{at}unsw.edu.au

Extremely halophilic archaea were cultivated from smooth and pustular microbial mats collected from Hamelin Pool, Shark Bay, Western Australia. On the basis of morphology, two phenotypes were present and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that all strains were most closely related to members of the genus Haloferax (98.1–99.4 % similarity). One representative strain from each phenotype was selected for further taxonomic characterization. Strain SA5^T, isolated from the smooth mat, formed small (1 mm diameter), red, translucent colonies on agar medium and strain PA12^T, isolated from the pustular mat, formed large (3–5 mm diameter), pink, mucoid, domed colonies. Both strains grew in media with 1.7–5.1 M NaCl, required at least 0.2 M Mg²⁺ for growth and had pH optima of 7.4. The 16S rRNA gene similarity between strains SA5^T and PA12^T was 97.1 %. Physiological properties, G+C content and polar lipid composition supported placement of both strains in the genus Haloferax. Phenotypic analysis indicated that the two strains were distinct from each other and from all other members of the genus. This was confirmed by the low DNA–DNA relatedness between strains SA5^T and PA12^T (18–30 %) and between both strains and all other recognized Haloferax species. Two novel species of the genus Haloferax are proposed to accommodate these novel isolates, Haloferax elongans sp. nov. (type strain SA5^T=JCM 14791^T=ATCC BAA-1513^T=UNSW 104100^T) and Haloferax mucosum sp. nov. (type strain PA12^T=JCM 14792^T=ATCC BAA-1512^T=UNSW 104200^T).

The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the 16S rRNA gene sequences of Haloferax elongans sp. nov. SA5^T and Haloferax mucosum sp. nov. PA12^T are DQ860977 and DQ860980, respectively.

Phase-contrast micrographs of late-exponential-phase cells of SA5^T and PA12^T (Fig. S1), SDS-PAGE patterns of whole-cell proteins (Fig. S2) and TLC analysis of polar lipids (Fig. S3) of SA5^T and PA12^T and reference taxa are available with the online version of this paper.

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