Three bacterial strains were isolated from different saline soils in Spain. The novel strains were moderately halophilic, exopolysaccharide-producing, Gram-negative, non-motile rods. The strains required NaCl and grew best with 7.5-10 % (w/v) NaCl in the medium. They formed wax-coloured colonies, were oxidase-positive and showed respiratory metabolism, using oxygen, nitrate and nitrite as terminal electron acceptors. The novel strains were able to denitrify and did not produce acid from sugars. The DNA G+C contents varied between 62.7 and 66.2 mol%. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences and sequence signatures of this gene showed that all three novel isolates belonged to the genus Halomonas in the class Gammaproteobacteria and formed an independent phylogenetic line. The most phylogenetically related species were Halomonas alimentaria, Halomonas campaniensis, Halomonas gudaonensis and Halomonas ventosae, with which the novel strains showed 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values of between 96.3 and 95.2 %. The principal fatty acids of the novel strains were 16 : 0, 18 : 1 omega 7c, 16 : 1 omega 7c and 19 : 0 cyclo omega 8c. The predominant respiratory lipoquinone was ubiquinone with nine isoprene units (Q-9). The name Halomonas cerina sp. nov. is proposed for these isolates. The type strain is SP4T (=CECT 7282T=LMG 24145T).
