Strain HBUAS61001T was isolated from the pickling sauce used to make a traditional fermented food product, datoucai, in China. The strain belonged to the genus Vibrio, but was placed in a clade separate from any known Vibrio species based on the 16S rRNA gene and MLSA results. The genome consisted of two chromosomes: chromosome I was 2 901 449 bp long with a G+C content of 45.4 mol%; and chromosome II was 1 107 930 bp long with a G+C content of 45.5 mol%. The most abundant fatty acids were C16 : 0 (28.1 %), summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or C16 : 1ω6c, 29.4 %) and summed feature 8 (C18 : 1ω7c and/or C18 : 1ω6c, 10.1 %). The isoprenoid quinones detected were Q7 and Q8. The predominant polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol. Strain HBUAS61001T could grow in the presence of up to 17 % NaCl. The calculated average nucleotide identity and in silico DNA-DNA hybridization (GGDC) values of the strain against the closest related type strains were all lower than 95 and 70 %, respectively. Putative genes in the genome associated with survival under high salinity stress were identified. Based on whole genome sequence analysis and phenotypic characteristics, strain HBUAS61001T is a new species in the genus Vibrio, and the name Vibrio zhugei (=GDMCC 1.1416T=KCTC 62784T) is proposed.
Keywords: MLSA; ectoine; glycine betaine; pickling sauce.