Arenibaculum pallidiluteum gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel bacterium in the family Azospirillaceae, isolated from desert soil, and reclassification of Skermanella xinjiangensis to a new genus Deserticella as Deserticella xinjiangensis comb. nov., and transfer of the genera Indioceanicola and Oleisolibacter from the family Rhodospirillaceae to the family Azospirillaceae.

A novel pale orange-coloured bacterium, designated strain SYSU D00532T, was isolated from sandy soil collected from the Gurbantunggut desert in Xinjiang, PR China. Cells of strain SYSU D00532T were found to be aerobic, Gram-stain-negative, oxidase-positive, catalase-positive, motile and rod-shaped with a single polar or subpolar flagellum. Growth occurred at 15-45 °C (optimum, 28-37 °C, pH 5.0-8.0 (optimum, pH 6.0-7.0) and with 0-1.5% NaCl (w/v; optimum, 0.5 %). The major polar lipids consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylglycerol. Unidentified aminolipids, unidentified polar lipids, an unidentified aminophospholipid and an unidentified phospholipid were also detected. The major respiratory quinone was ubiquinone-10 and the major fatty acids were summed feature 8 (C18:1ω7c and/or C18:1ω6c), C16:0 and C19:0 cyclo ω8c. The genomic DNA G+C content was 69.8 mol%. Results of phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain SYSU D00532T belonged to the family Azospirillaceae and showed 93.4% (Desertibacter roseus 2622T), 93.2% (Skermanella xinjiangensis 10-1-101T), 93.2% ('Skermanella rubra' YIM 93097T) and 92.4% (Desertibacter xinjiangensis M71T) similarities. Based on the phylogenetic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic data, strain SYSU D00532T is proposed to represent a new species of a new genus, named Arenibaculum pallidiluteum gen. nov., sp. nov., within the family Azospirillaceae. The type strain is SYSU D00532T (=KCTC 82269T=CGMCC 1.18631T=MCCC 1K04984T). We also propose the reclassification of Skermanella xinjiangensis to a new genus Deserticella as Deserticella xinjiangensis comb. nov., and the transfer of the genera Indioceanicola and Oleisolibacter from the family Rhodospirillaceae to the family Azospirillaceaewe based on the phylogenetic results.