Abstract:
Current ‐omics methods allow the collection of a large amount of information that helps in describing the
microbial diversity in nature. Here, and as a result of a culturomic approach that rendered the collection of
thousands of isolates from 5 different hypersaline sites (in Spain, USA and New Zealand), we obtained 21
strains that represent two new Salinibacter species. For these species we propose the names Salinibacter pepae
sp. nov. and Salinibacter grassmerensis sp. nov. (showing average nucleotide identity (ANI) values < 95.09%
and 87.08% with Sal. ruber M31T, respectively). Metabolomics revealed species‐specific discriminative profiles.
Sal. ruber strains were distinguished by a higher percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids and specific Nfunctionalized
fatty acids; and Sal. altiplanensis was distinguished by an increased number of glycosylated molecules.
Based on sequence characteristics and inferred phenotype of metagenome‐assembled genomes (MAGs),
we describe two new members of the genus Salinibacter. These species dominated in different sites and always
coexisted with Sal. ruber and Sal. pepae. Based on the MAGs from three Argentinian lakes in the Pampa region
of Argentina and the MAG of the Romanian lake Fără Fund, we describe the species Salinibacter pampae sp. nov.
and Salinibacter abyssi sp. nov. respectively (showing ANI values 90.94% and 91.48% with Sal. ruber M31T, respectively). Sal. grassmerensis sp. nov. name was formed according to the rules of the International Code for
Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP), and Sal. pepae, Sal. pampae sp. nov. and Sal. abyssi sp. nov. are proposed
following the rules of the newly published Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes Described from Sequence Data
(SeqCode). This work constitutes an example on how classification under ICNP and SeqCode can coexist, and
how the official naming a cultivated organism for which the deposit in public repositories is difficult finds an
intermediate solution.
