title: Microbial culturomics unravels the halophilic microbiota repertoire of table salt: description ofGracilibacillus massiliensissp. nov.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Microbial culturomics represents an ongoing revolution in the characterization of environmental and human microbiome.
  
  
  METHODS
  By using three media containing high salt concentration (100, 150, and 200 g/L), the halophilic microbial culturome of a commercial table salt was determined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eighteen species belonging to the Terrabacteria group were isolated including eight moderate halophilic and 10 halotolerant bacteria.Gracilibacillus massiliensissp. nov., type strain Awa-1T(=CSUR P1441=DSM 29726), is a moderately halophilic gram-positive, non-spore-forming rod, and is motile by using a flagellum. Strain Awa-1Tshows catalase activity but no oxidase activity. It is not only an aerobic bacterium but also able to grow in anaerobic and microaerophilic atmospheres. The draft genome ofG. massiliensisis 4,207,226 bp long, composed of 13 scaffolds with 36.05% of G+C content. It contains 3,908 genes (3,839 protein-coding and 69 RNA genes). At least 1,983 (52%) orthologous proteins were not shared with the closest phylogenetic species. Hundred twenty-six genes (3.3%) were identified as ORFans.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Microbial culturomics can dramatically improve the characterization of the food and environmental microbiota repertoire, deciphering new bacterial species and new genes. Further studies will clarify the geographic specificity and the putative role of these new microbes and their related functional genetic content in environment, health, and disease.
authors.affiliation: Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes, AMU UM 63, CNRS UMR7278, IRD 198, INSERM U1095, Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée-Infection, Faculté de médecine, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Awa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Diop
authors.affiliation: Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes, AMU UM 63, CNRS UMR7278, IRD 198, INSERM U1095, Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée-Infection, Faculté de médecine, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Saber
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khelaifia
authors.affiliation: Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes, AMU UM 63, CNRS UMR7278, IRD 198, INSERM U1095, Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée-Infection, Faculté de médecine, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Armstrong
authors.affiliation: Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes, AMU UM 63, CNRS UMR7278, IRD 198, INSERM U1095, Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée-Infection, Faculté de médecine, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Noémie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Labas
authors.affiliation: Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes, AMU UM 63, CNRS UMR7278, IRD 198, INSERM U1095, Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée-Infection, Faculté de médecine, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Pierre-Edouard
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Fournier
authors.affiliation: Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes, AMU UM 63, CNRS UMR7278, IRD 198, INSERM U1095, Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée-Infection, Faculté de médecine, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France.|Special Infectious Agents Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Didier
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Raoult
authors.affiliation: Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes, AMU UM 63, CNRS UMR7278, IRD 198, INSERM U1095, Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée-Infection, Faculté de médecine, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France; matthieumillion@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Matthieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Million
keywords: Gracilibacillus massiliensis; culturomics; halophile; microbial community; salt; taxono-genomics