Bacillus qingdaonensis sp. nov., a moderately haloalkaliphilic bacterium isolated from a crude sea-salt sample collected near Qingdao in eastern China.

A moderately haloalkaliphilic, Gram-positive bacterium, designated as strain CM1(T), was isolated from a crude sea-salt sample collected near Qingdao in eastern China. Strain CM1(T) was found to grow optimally at 37 degrees C and pH 9.0. It was shown to be aerobic, rod-shaped and capable of growth at salinities of 2.5-20 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 12 %). The genomic DNA G+C content was about 48 mol%. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C(15 : 0), anteiso-C(17 : 0) and iso-C(16 : 0) and the major isoprenoid quinones were MK-7(H(2)) and MK-6(H(2)). Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that CM1(T) is a member of the genus Bacillus and has less than 95.2 % gene sequence similarity to the most closely related strain, Bacillus salarius BH169(T). Its DNA-DNA reassociation value with respect to B. salarius BH169(T) was 35.4 %. On the basis of phenotypic and molecular properties, strain CM1(T) represents a novel Bacillus species, for which the name Bacillus qingdaonensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CM1(T) (=CGMCC 1.6134(T)=JCM 14087(T)).