Halochromatium roseum sp. nov., a non-motile phototrophic gammaproteobacterium with gas vesicles, and emended description of the genus Halochromatium

Abstract

A rod-shaped, marine, phototrophic, purple sulfur bacterium containing gas vesicles was isolated from a marine solar saltern at Kakinada, India. Cells of strain JA134T are Gram-negative, non-motile rods, with vesicular intracytoplasmic membranes, and the strain has an absolute requirement for NaCl for growth. Bacteriochlorophyll a and the carotenoid okenone are present as photosynthetic pigments. Phylogenetic analysis on the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain JA134T clusters with members of the genus Halochromatium, but is distinctly separated from the species reported so far. The morphological and physiological differences of strain JA134T from other Halochromatium species support the description of strain JAI134T (=ATCC BAA- 1363T=DSM 18859T=JCM 14151T) as the type strain of a novel species, Halochromatium roseum sp. nov. © 2007 IUMS.