Halalkalibacillus halophilus gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel moderately halophilic and alkaliphilic bacterium isolated from a non-saline soil sample in Japan

Abstract

A moderately halophilic and alkaliphilic bacterium, designated strain BH2T, was isolated from non-saline garden soil in Saitama, Japan. Cells of strain BH2T were motile, aerobic, rod-shaped and Gram-positive and contained A1γ, meso-diaminopimelic acid-type murein. Growth occurred in 5.0–25 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 10–15 %, w/v), at pH 5.5–10.0 (optimum, pH 8.5–9.0) and at 20–40 °C. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was menaquinone-7. The major cellular fatty acids were ai-C15 : 0, i-C16 : 0, ai-C17 : 0 and i-C15 : 0. The G+C content of the total DNA of strain BH2T was 35.1±0.4 mol% (±sd; n=5). The phylogenetic distance from species with validly published names was less than 94.1 %. The phylogenetic and phenotypic characteristics indicated that strain BH2T represents a novel genus and species, for which the name Halalkalibacillus halophilus gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is BH2T (=JCM 14192T=DSM 18494T).