ORIGINAL PAPER Arthrobacter halodurans sp. nov., a new halotolerant bacterium isolated from sea water Yi-Guang Chen Æ Shu-Kun Tang Æ Yu-Qin Zhang Æ Zhao-Yang Li Æ Lang-Bo Yi Æ Yong-Xia Wang Æ Wen-Jun Li Æ Xiao-Long Cui Received: 13 December 2008 / Accepted: 19 March 2009 / Published online: 1 April 2009 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract A novel Gram-positive, halotolerant, non- sporulating, non-motile, catalase-positive, oxidase- negative and aerobic bacterium, designated strain JSM 078085 T , was isolated from sea water collected from the South China Sea. Strain JSM 078085 T exhibited a rod-coccus growth cycle and produced a yellow pigment. The strain was able to grow in the presence of 0–12% (w/v) NaCl and at pH 6.0–9.5 and 4–35°C; optimum growth was observed at pH 7.0 and 25–30°C in the absence of NaCl. The peptidoglycan type was A4a (L-Lys–L-Ala–L-Glu). Cell-wall sugars contained galactose and glucose. Strain JSM 078085 T contained menaquinone MK-9(H 2 ) as the major respiratory quinone and diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylinositol as the major polar lipids. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C 15:0 , iso-C 15:0 and anteiso-C 17:0 and the The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain JSM 078085 T is EU583729. Y.-G. Chen (&) Á Z.-Y. Li Á L.-B. Yi Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Plant Resources of Hunan Province, College of Biology and Environmental Sciences, Jishou University, 416000 Jishou, People’s Republic of China e-mail: mchenjsu@yahoo.com.cn Y.-G. Chen Á S.-K. Tang Á Y.-Q. Zhang Á Y.-X. Wang Á W.-J. Li Á X.-L. Cui The Key Laboratory for Microbial Resources of the Ministry of Education, Yunnan Institute of Microbiology, Yunnan University, 650091 Kunming, People’s Republic of China X.-L. Cui e-mail: xlcuiynu@yahoo.com.cn Y.-G. Chen Á S.-K. Tang Á Y.-Q. Zhang Á Y.-X. Wang Á W.-J. Li Á X.-L. Cui Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio- Resources, Yunnan Institute of Microbiology, Yunnan University, 650091 Kunming, People’s Republic of China Y.-Q. Zhang Institute of Medicinal Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, 100050 Beijing, People’s Republic of China W.-J. Li Guangdong Key Laboratory of Marine Materia Medica, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 510301 Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China 123 Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (2009) 96:63–70 DOI 10.1007/s10482-009-9336-5