Taklimakanibacter deserti gen. nov., sp. nov. and Taklimakanibacter lacteus sp. nov., isolated from desert soil.

Two Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, milk-white coloured, non-motile, short rod-shaped bacteria, designated as strains SYSU D60010^T and SYSU D60012^T, were isolated from sand samples collected from the Taklimakan Desert of Xinjiang Province in China. Both strains were positive for oxidase, catalase and nitrate reduction, but negative for amylase, H₂S production, hydrolysis of gelatin and cellulase. Strains SYSU D60010^T and SYSU D60012^T grew well at 28 °C, at pH 7 and had the same NaCl tolerance range of 0-1 % (w/v). The major fatty acids (>5 %) of strains SYSU D60010^T and SYSU D60012^T were summed feature 8 (C_18 : 1  ω7c and/or C_18 : 1  ω6c), iso-C_19 : 0 cyclo ω8c, C_16 : 0 and iso-C_18 : 1 2-OH. Q-10 was the only respiratory ubiquinone. Strains SYSU D60010^T and SYSU D60012^T showed high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities to Aestuariivirga litoralis SYSU M10001^T (94.2 and 94.1 %), Rhodoligotrophos jinshengii BUT-3^T (92.0 and 91.9 %) and Rhodoligotrophos appendicifer 120-1^T (91.8 and 91.7 %), and the genomes were 7.4 and 5.8 Mbp in size with DNA G+C contents of 62.8 and 63.0 mol%, respectively. Phylogenetic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics indicated that these two strains represent a novel genus and two novel species within the family Aestuariivirgaceae. We propose the name Taklimakanibacter deserti gen. nov., sp. nov. for strain SYSU D60010^T, representing the type strain of this species (=KCTC 52783^T =NBRC 113344^T) and Taklimakanibacter lacteus gen. nov., sp. nov. for strain SYSU D60012^T, representing the type strain of this species (=KCTC 52785^T=NBRC 113128^T).