Reclassification of Bacillus haloalkaliphilus Fritze 1996 as Alkalibacillus haloalkaliphilus gen. nov., comb. nov. and the description of Alkalibacillus salilacus sp. nov., a novel halophilic bacterium isolated from a salt lake in China

Abstract

A spore-forming, halophilic bacterium, designated strain BH163T, was isolated from a salt lake in China. Cells were motile, strictly aerobic rods that contained type A1γ peptidoglycan with meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. The isolate showed Gram- and catalase-positive reactions and formed a terminal endospore with a swollen sporangium. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C15:0, iso-C15:0, anteiso-C17:0 and iso-C16:0. The genomic DNA G+C content of the strain was 41.0 mol%. Comparative analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain BH163T formed a distinct line within the phyletic group classically defined as the genus Bacillus and was most closely related to the taxa [Bacillus] haloalkaliphilus DSM 5271T and Filobacillus milosensis DSM 13259T, with 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of 95.9 and 94.5%, respectively. On the basis of physiological and molecular properties, it is proposed that [Bacillus] haloalkaliphilus DSM 5271T is reclassified in the new genus Alkalibacillus as Alkalibacillus haloalkaliphilus gen. nov., comb. nov. Strain BH163T (=KCTC 3916T =DSM 16460T) was assigned as the type strain of the novel species Alkalibacillus salilacus.