''Rhodoluna'' is a

Gram-positive In bacteriology, gram-positive bacteria are bacteria that give a positive result in the Gram stain test, which is traditionally used to quickly classify bacteria into two broad categories according to their type of cell wall. The Gram stain is ...

, non-

spore In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual reproduction, sexual (in fungi) or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for biological dispersal, dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores fo ...

-forming and non-motile genus of bacteria from the family of ''

Microbacteriaceae Microbacteriaceae is a family of bacteria of the order Actinomycetales. They are Gram-positive soil organisms. Genera The family ''Microbacteriaceae'' comprises the following genera: * ''Agreia'' Evtushenko ''et al''. 2001 * ''Agrococcus'' Grot ...

''. The type strain of the only species '' Rhodoluna lacicola'' encodes an actinorhodopsin, which is a light-diven proton pump enabling light energy conversion, potentially resulting in a mixotrophic physiology. The type strain of ''R. lacicola'' was isolated from

Lake Tai Taihu (), also known as Lake Tai or Lake Taihu, is a lake in the Yangtze Delta and the third largest freshwater lake in China. The lake is in Jiangsu province and a significant part of its southern shore forms its border with Zhejiang. With ...

(Lake Taihu) in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The type strain MWH-Ta8 is remarkable for its very small cell size ultramicrobacterium and its small

genome size Genome size is the total amount of DNA contained within one copy of a single complete genome. It is typically measured in terms of mass in picograms (trillionths or 10−12 of a gram, abbreviated pg) or less frequently in daltons, or as the tot ...

of only 1.4 Mbp. The type strain has a planktonic lifestyle, that is freely floating the water column of aquatic systems. Currently, the genus Rhodoluna contains two described species (''R. lacicola'' and ''R. limnophila''Pitt A, Schmidt J, Koll U, Hahn MW. Rhodoluna limnophila sp. nov., a bacterium with 1.4 Mbp genome size isolated from freshwater habitats located in Salzburg, Austria. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2019; 69:3946-395

/ref>).

References

Microbacteriaceae Bacteria genera Bacteria described in 2014 {{Actinobacteria-stub