Reclassification of Bacillus haloalkaliphilus Fritze 1996 as Alkalibacillus haloalkaliphilus gen. nov., comb. nov. and the description of Alkalibacillus salilacus sp. nov., a novel halophilic bacterium isolated from a salt lake in China.

A spore-forming, halophilic bacterium, designated strain BH163(T), was isolated from a salt lake in China. Cells were motile, strictly aerobic rods that contained type A1gamma peptidoglycan with meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. The isolate showed Gram- and catalase-positive reactions and formed a terminal endospore with a swollen sporangium. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C(15:0), iso-C(15:0), anteiso-C(17:0) and iso-C(16:0). The genomic DNA G+C content of the strain was 41.0 mol%. Comparative analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain BH163(T) formed a distinct line within the phyletic group classically defined as the genus Bacillus and was most closely related to the taxa [Bacillus] haloalkaliphilus DSM 5271(T) and Filobacillus milosensis DSM 13259(T), with 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of 95.9 and 94.5%, respectively. On the basis of physiological and molecular properties, it is proposed that [Bacillus] haloalkaliphilus DSM 5271(T) is reclassified in the new genus Alkalibacillus as Alkalibacillus haloalkaliphilus gen. nov., comb. nov. Strain BH163(T) (=KCTC 3916(T)=DSM 16460(T)) was assigned as the type strain of the novel species Alkalibacillus salilacus.