Rheinheimera longhuensis sp. nov., isolated from a slightly alkaline lake, and emended description of genus Rheinheimera Brettar et al. The bacterial strain LH2-2 T was isolated from freshwater of Longhu Lake, a slightly alkaline lake (pH 8.8) in north-east China. Cells of strain LH2-2 T were Gram-staining-negative, non-sporeforming rods, 0.3-0.5 mm wide and 2.0-4.0 mm long. Cells were motile by means of a single polar flagellum. The strain was strictly aerobic and heterotrophic and oxidase-and catalase-positive. Growth occurred at 0-36 6C (optimum, 26-34 6C), pH 6.5-11 (optimum, pH 8.0-8.6) and in the presence of 0-2 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 1 %). Strain LH2-2 T contained Q-8 as the major respiratory quinone. The major fatty acids were summed feature 3 (C 16 : 1 v7c and/or iso-C 15 : 0 2-OH; 21.9 %), C 17 : 1 v8c (18.9 %), C 18 : 1 v7c (16.4 %) and C 16 : 0 (12.7 %) after growth on marine agar 2216. The DNA G+C content was 47 mol% (T m ). The 16S rRNA gene and a conserved portion of the gyrB gene were sequenced and used for phylogenetic analyses. Phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene and gyrB sequences showed that strain LH2-2 T was associated with the genus Rheinheimera and closely related to the type strains of Rheinheimera species, and showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Rheinheimera pacifica KMM 1406 ). An emended description of the genus Rheinheimera is also provided.The genus Rheinheimera, a branch of the gammaproteobacteria, was created by Brettar et al. et al., 2011). Members of Rheinheimera have mostly been isolated from aquatic environments (except for R. soli, R. nanhaiensis and R. tangshanensis, which were isolated from soil, marine sediments and plant roots, respectively), including seawater (R. baltica, R. pacifica, R. perlucida and R. aquimaris) and freshwater (R. texasensis, R. aquatica and R. chironomi; the latter was isolated from a chironomid egg mass sampled from river water). Species of Rheinheimera are able to grow on and to degrade rapidly the more easily degradable organic fraction of marine organic matter (Bianchi & Bianchi, 1995;Pinhassi & Berman, 2003;Poretsky et al., 2005), suggesting that they may play important roles in aquatic environments in biogeochemical cycling of elements such as carbon. In this communication, a freshwater bacterial isolate capable of growth at 0 u C, strain LH2-2 T , was investigated for its taxonomic position by a polyphasic approach.