Reclassification of Halomonas caseinilytica Wu et al. 2008 as a later synonym of Halomonas sinaiensis Romano et al. 2007, and emendation of the species description

Abstract

The taxonomic relationship between Halomonas sinaiensis DSM 18067T and Halomonas caseinilytica JCM 14802T has not been established, despite the high similarity (99.6 %) of their 16S rRNA gene sequences. To clarify their taxonomic positions, a polyphasic approach was applied to both type strains. Genomic relatedness analyses between H. sinaiensis DSM 18067T and H. caseinilytica JCM 14802T resulted in an average nucleotide identity of 99.5 % and an estimated DNA-DNA hybridization of 96.1 % by the genome-to-genome distance calculator, indicating that they belong to a single species. Phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics showed no pronounced differences between the two type strains. Based on the results of this polyphasic study, it is proposed that H. caseinilytica JCM 14802T is a later heterotypic synonym of H. sinaiensis DSM 18067T. An emended description for the species H. sinaiensis is given.