Songs of Love and Marriage in \u22Shijing Guofeng (詩經國風)\u22 and Ancient Courtship through Song and Dance

Anaerobic enrichment from sediments of hypersaline alkaline lakes in Wadi el Natrun(Egypt) with chitin resulted in the isolation of a fermentative haloalkaliphilic bacterium,strain ACht6-1, growing exclusively with insoluble chitin as the substrate in a sodiumcarbonate-based medium at pH 8.5–10.5 and total NaC concentrations from 0.4 to1.75 M. The isolate had a Gram-negative cell wall and formed lipid cysts in old cultures.The chitinolytic activity was associated with cells. Analysis of the 4.4 Mb draft genomeidentified pathways for chitin utilization, particularly, secreted chitinases linked to the cellsurface, as well as genes for the hydrolysis of other polysaccharides and fermentationof sugars, while the genes needed for aerobic and anaerobic respiration were absent.Adaptation to a haloalkaliphilic lifestyle was reflected by the gene repertoire encodingsodium rather than proton-dependent membrane-bound ion pumps, including the Rnftypecomplex, oxaloacetate decarboxylase, V-type ATPase, and pyrophosphatase. Thephylogenetic analysis using 16S rRNA gene and ribosomal proteins indicated thatACht6-1 forms a novel deep lineage at the class level within the bacterial candidatedivision TG3. Based on phylogenetic, phenotypic and genomic analyses, the novelchitinolytic bacterium is described as Chitinispirillum alkaliphilum gen. nov., sp. nov.