Pontibacillus salicampi sp. nov., a moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from saltern soil

Abstract

A Gram-stain-positive, moderately halophilic bacterium, designated BH043T, was isolated from saltern soil of Gomso in Korea. Cells were motile rods, producing ellipsoidal endospores at a terminal position in swollen sporangia. Strain BH043T was strictly aerobic, grew at pH 6.0–10.0 (optimal growth at pH 7.5), at 10–55 °C (optimal growth at 30 °C) and at salinities of 1–20 % (w/v) NaCl, growing optimally with 7 % (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain BH043T belongs to the family Bacillaceae and was most closely related to the type strains of the five recognized species of the genus Pontibacillus , showing sequence similarity to Pontibacillus yanchengensis Y32T (97.5 % similarity), Pontibacillus marinus BH030004T (97.4 %), Pontibacillus chungwhensis BH030062T (97.0 %), Pontibacillus litoralis JSM 072002T (96.4 %) and Pontibacillus halophilus JSM 076056T (96.2 %). The major cellular fatty acids of strain BH043T were iso-C15 : 0 and anteiso-C15 : 0. The genomic DNA G+C content was 42.5 mol%. The major isoprenoid quinone was MK-7 and meso-diaminopimelic acid was present in the cell-wall peptidoglycan as the diagnostic diamino acid. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol. DNA–DNA relatedness between strain BH043T and the type strains of other species of the genus Pontibacillus , P. yanchengensis CGMCC 1.10680T and P. marinus KCTC 3917T and P. chungwhensis KCTC 3890T, was 35, 24 and 18 %, respectively. On the basis of polyphasic analysis from this study, strain BH043T represents a novel species of the genus Pontibacillus for which the name Pontibacillus salicampi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is BH043T ( = KACC 17607T = NBRC 109831T = NCAIM B.02529T).