Salinibacillus aidingensis gen. nov., sp. nov. and Salinibacillus kushneri sp. nov., moderately halophilic bacteria isolated from a neutral saline lake in Xin-Jiang, China.

Three Gram-positive, moderately halophilic, heterotrophic bacterial strains were isolated from a neutral saline lake in the Xin-Jiang area of China. The strains, designated 8-2(T), W11-1 and 25-7(T), were motile, spore-forming, aerobic rods and contained meso-diaminopimelic acid in their cell walls. Their DNA G+C contents were 37.4, 37.2 and 39.9 mol%, respectively. The main fatty acids in the cellular membranes of these novel strains were C(15) and C(17) methyl-branched. No species with validly published names showed 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of more than 95 % with respect to these novel isolates; the most closely related species was a halophilic denitrifier, Bacillus halodenitrificans (94.6 %). Polyphasic taxonomic studies revealed that these strains belong to the Bacillaceae and are distantly related to other genera of the family. It is proposed that a new genus, Salinibacillus, should be created, with Salinibacillus aidingensis (type strain, 25-7(T)=AS 1.3565(T)=JCM 12389(T)) as the type species. Another species, Salinibacillus kushneri, is also proposed, with 8-2(T) (=AS 1.3566(T)=JCM 12390(T)) as the type strain.