Halococcoides cellulosivorans, Sorokin & Khijniak & Elcheninov & Toshchakov & Kostrikina & Bale & Sinninghe Damsté & Kublanov, 2019

Sorokin, Dimitry Y., Khijniak, Tatiana V., Elcheninov, Alexander G., Toshchakov, Stepan V., Kostrikina, Nadezhda A., Bale, Nicole J., Sinninghe Damsté, Jaap S. & Kublanov, Ilya V., 2019, Halococcoides cellulosivorans gen. nov., sp. nov., an extremely halophilic cellulose-utilizing haloarchaeon from hypersaline lakes, International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 69 (5), pp. 1327-1335 : 1334

DESCRIPTION OF HALOCOCCOIDES CELLULOSIVORANS SP. NOV.

Halococcoides cellulosivorans (cel.lu.lo.si.vo′ rans N.L. neut. n. cellulosum, cellulose; L. pres. part. vorans, devouring; N.L. part. adj. cellulosivorans , cellulose-devouring).

Cells are non-motile cocci, 0.8–3 µm, with a thin monolayer cell wall. The colonies on amorphous cellulose agar are flat, up to 1 mm, soft and slightly orange. It is a strictly aerobic (catalase/oxidase positive) saccharolytic specialized on utilization of native forms of insoluble cellulose and xylan. Cellobiose is the only soluble sugar utilized for growth. The nitrogen source is ammonium. Nitrate and urea are not utilized. Does not grow anaerobically either by fermentation or anaerobic respiration. Does not utilize organic acids or organic nitrogen compounds as carbon and energy source. High Mg is not required for growth. Proteolytic and lipolytic activity are absent. Strain HArcel1 T is an extremely halophilic neutrophile, with the NaCl range for growth between 3 and 5 M (optimum at 3.5–4 M) and the pH range from 6.5 to 8.0 (optimum, pH 7.0–7.2). The maximum growth temperature at 4 M NaCl with cellobiose as substrate is 50 Ǫ C (optimum, 40–42 Ǫ C). The core membrane lipids are dominated by C 20 - C 20 and C 25 -C 20 DGE with 1 C 25 MGE and 2 C 20 MGE as minor components. The identified intact membrane polar lipids include PGP-Me and PG as major components, and diglycosyl diether glycolipid and phosphatidylglycerol sulfate sulfolipid as minor components. The G +C content of the genomic DNA in the type strain is 65.74 mol% (genome). The habitat is hypersaline lakes with near-neutral pH.

The type strain is HArcel1 T =JCM 31941 T =UNIQEM U975 T . The full genome accession number in the GenBank is CP028858 .