Salinicoccus siamensis sp. nov., isolated from fermented shrimp paste in Thailand

Abstract

Fifteen strains of moderately halophilic, Gram-positive cocci were isolated from a traditional fermented shrimp paste (‘ka-pi’) produced in Thailand. These bacteria were strictly aerobic, non-motile, non-sporulating and catalase- and oxidase-positive. They produced orange pigment and grew in the presence of 1.5–25 % (w/v) NaCl. They grew optimally in 10 % (w/v) NaCl, at pH 8.5 and at 37 °C. The cell-wall peptidoglycan was of l -Lys type. Menaquinone with six isoprene units (MK-6) was a major component. The dominant cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C 15 : 0 and iso-C 15 : 0 . DNA G+C contents were in the range 44.5–47.5 mol%. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses indicated that representative strain PN1-2 T was related most closely to Salinicoccus roseus JCM 14630 T , with 97.3 % similarity. The other novel strains were included in the same species based on their levels of DNA–DNA relatedness to strain PN1-2 T (≥76.6 %) but showed low DNA–DNA relatedness to S. roseus JCM 14630 T (21.7 %). On the basis of the phenotypic and molecular data presented, the 15 novel strains are suggested to represent a single novel species of the genus Salinicoccus , for which the name Salinicoccus siamensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is PN1-2 T (=JCM 12822 T =PCU 242 T =TISTR 1562 T ).