Virgibacillus dokdonensis sp. nov., isolated from a Korean island, Dokdo, located at the edge of the East Sea in Korea.

A Gram-variable, motile, endospore-forming, slightly halophilic bacterial strain, DSW-10(T), was isolated from Dokdo, an island located at the edge of the East Sea, Korea, and was characterized taxonomically by using a polyphasic approach. This isolate grew optimally at 37 degrees C and in the presence of 4-5% NaCl. Strain DSW-10(T) had cell-wall peptidoglycan based on meso-diaminopimelic acid, MK-7 as the predominant menaquinone, and anteiso-C(15:0), iso-C(15:0), anteiso-C(17:0) and iso-C(16:0) as major fatty acids. Major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and unidentified phospholipids. The DNA G+C content was 36.7 mol%. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain DSW-10(T) is phylogenetically affiliated to the genus Virgibacillus, and exhibited sequence similarity of 95.3-98.7% to the type strains of Virgibacillus species. DNA-DNA relatedness levels between strain DSW-10(T) and the type strains of some phylogenetically related Virgibacillus species were in the range 8.4-17.5%. On the basis of phenotypic properties and phylogenetic and genetic distinctiveness, strain DSW-10(T) (=KCTC 3933(T)=DSM 16826(T)) was classified as the type strain of a novel Virgibacillus species, for which the name Virgibacillus dokdonensis sp. nov. is proposed.