Isolation and phylogenetic analysis of halophilic archaea AJ6.

Halophilic Archaea AJ6 was isolated and purified from the Altun Mountain National Nature Reserve of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Strain AJ6 is Gram-negative rods, a few are globular, with the size of single cell of 0.2-0.6 μm by 1.6-4.2 μm. The optimum salt concentration for its growth is 20% NaCl and 0.6% Mg~(2+), and the optimum pH is 6.0-7.0. Based on its morphology and physiological and biochemical features, 16S rRNA encoding gene (16S rDNA) from AJ6 was amplified by PCR, and their nucleotide sequences were determined. Clustalw and PHYLIP software bags were used to analyze 16S rDNA sequence, and the homology was compared and phylogenetic analysis was exerted, at the same time, phylogenetic tree of halophilic archaea was established. It was considered that strain AJ6 is a novel species of the genus Natrinema, and the name Natrinema altuensis is proposed. The GenBank accession numbers of the 16S rDNA sequences about strain AJ6 is AY277584.