Alkalibacterium olivoapovliticus gen. nov., sp. nov., a new obligately alkaliphilic bacterium isolated from edible-olive wash-waters.

A novel Gram-positive, obligately alkaliphilic, non-sporulating, rod-shaped, flagellated bacterium is described. Three different strains of the bacterium were isolated from the wash-waters of edible-olive production. The strains are motile, psychrotolerant, halotolerant, facultatively anaerobic bacteria with a pH optimum of 9.0-9.4 for two strains and 9.8-10.2 for the third. They are catalase- and oxidase-negative. A range of hexoses and some disaccharides composed of hexoses, but not pentoses are metabolized by the bacterial strains: D(+)-glucose, D(+)-glucose 6-phosphate, D(+)-cellobiose, starch or sucrose are the carbohydrates best utilized. No common amino acids are utilized by the three alkaliphilic strains, but yeast extract can serve as sole carbon and energy source. The major membrane phospholipids are diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and an unknown phospholipid, all containing saturated and unsaturated, even-carbon-numbered fatty acyl chains with hexadecanoic and hexadecen(7)oic as the predominant components. The G+C content of the DNA in all three strains is 39.7+/-1.0 mol% and the DNA relatedness by hybridization is >88% for all pairings of the three strains. The results of 16S rRNA sequence comparisons revealed that the strains represent a new alkaliphilic linkage in the order Bacillales, belonging to the Carnobacterium/Aerococcus-like spectrum. It is proposed that the strains should be assigned to a new genus and species, Alkalibacterium olivoapovliticus. The three strains, designated WW2-SN4aT, WW2-SN4c and WW2-SN5, have been deposited with Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen (DSMZ) as DSM 13175T, DSM 12937 and DSM 12938 respectively, and in the National Collection of Industrial and Marine Bacteria as NCIMB 13710T, NCIMB 13711 and NCIMB 13712, respectively. The type species of this genus is Alkalibacterium olivoapovliticus and the type strain is WW2-SN4aT.