Bacillus herbersteinensis sp. nov.

Two bacterial strains, designated D-1,5a(T) and D-1,5b, were isolated from a medieval wall painting in the chapel of Castle Herberstein, Styria (Austria). The Gram-positive, heterotrophic, aerobic, spore-forming rods showed nearly identical whole-cell protein patterns, identical genomic fingerprints and identical physiological profiles, demonstrating their relationship at the species level. Both strains contained meso-diaminopimelic acid in their peptidoglycan, possessed a quinone system comprising menaquinone MK-7 and had fatty acid profiles in which C(15:0) iso and C(15:0) anteiso were predominant. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of D-1,5a(T) showed the highest similarity (99.5%) to the sequence of Bacillus sp. LMG 20243, and Bacillus flexus IFO 15715(T) was the next most closely related established species (96.5%). Other type strains, such as Bacillus fastidiosus DSM 91(T), Bacillus indicus SD/3(T), Bacillus cibi JG-30(T), Bacillus megaterium IAM 13418(T), Bacillus cohnii DSM 6308(T), Bacillus bataviensis LMG 21833(T) and Bacillus soli LMG 21838(T), shared 96.0-96.1% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with D-1,5a(T). The combination of physiological and chemotaxonomic traits distinguishes the two strains from those species sharing the highest sequence similarities (96.0-96.5%). On the basis of these characteristics and the phylogenetic position of strain D-1,5a(T) (=DSM 16534(T)=CCM 7228(T)), this strain is assigned as the type strain of a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus herbersteinensis sp. nov. is proposed.