Denitrificimonas halotolerans sp. nov., a novel species isolated from UASB sludge treating landfill leachate

A Gram-stain-negative, facultative anaerobe, rod-shaped strain JX-1^T was isolated from UASB sludge treating landfill leachate in Wuhan, China. The isolate is capable of growing under conditions of pH 6.0–11.0 (optimum, pH 7.0–8.0), temperature 4–42 ℃ (optimum, 20–30 ℃), 0–8.0% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 5.0%), and ammonia nitrogen concentration of 200–5000 mg/L (optimum, 500 mg/L) on LB plates. The microorganism can utilize malic acid, D-galactose, L-rhamnose, inosine, and L-glutamic acid as carbon sources, but does not reduce nitrates and nitrites. The major fatty acids are C_18:1ω7c/C_18:1ω6c, iso-C_15:0, and anteiso-C_15:0. The respiratory quinones are Q9 (91.92%) and Q8 (8.08%). Polar lipids include aminolipid, aminophospholipid, diphosphatidylglycerol, glycolipid, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, and phospholipid. Compared with other strains, strain JX-1^T and Denitrificimonas caeni HY-14^T have the highest values in terms of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (96.79%), average nucleotide identity (ANI; 76.06%), and average amino acid identity (AAI; 78.89%). Its digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) result is 20.3%. The genome of strain JX-1^T, with a size of 2.78 Mb and 46.12 mol% G + C content, lacks genes for denitrification and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA), but contains genes for ectoine synthesis as a secondary metabolite. The results of this polyphasic study allow genotypic and phenotypic differentiation of the analysed strain from the closest related species and confirm that the strain represents a novel species within the genus Denitrificimonas, for which the name Denitrificimonas halotolerans sp. nov. is proposed with JX-1^T (= MCCC 1K08958^T = KCTC 8395^T) as the type strain.