Reclassification of Marinococcus albus Hao et al. 1985 as Salimicrobium album gen. nov., comb. nov. and Bacillus halophilus Ventosa et al. 1990 as Salimicrobium halophilum comb. nov., and description of Salimicrobium luteum sp. nov.

A Gram-positive, non-motile, coccoid-shaped, non-spore-forming halophilic bacterial strain, BY-5(T), was isolated from a marine solar saltern in Korea and its taxonomic position was investigated by using a polyphasic approach. The novel strain grew optimally at 37 degrees C and in the presence of 10 % (w/v) NaCl. Strain BY-5(T) had meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan, MK-7 as the predominant menaquinone and anteiso-C(15 : 0), iso-C(15 : 0), anteiso-C(17 : 0) and iso-C(17 : 0) as the major fatty acids. The DNA G+C content was 47.9 mol%. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain BY-5(T) formed a coherent cluster with Bacillus halophilus and Marinococcus albus. Strain BY-5(T) exhibited 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values of 98.7 and 97.4 % to the type strains of B. halophilus and M. albus, respectively. Strain BY-5(T) was distinguished from B. halophilus and M. albus by several phenotypic properties and DNA-DNA relatedness data. On the basis of the combined chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data, it is proposed that M. albus, B. halophilus and strain BY-5(T) should be placed in a new genus as three separate species. Marinococcus albus and Bacillus halophilus are reclassified in a new genus, Salimicrobium gen. nov., as Salimicrobium album comb. nov. and Salimicrobium halophilum comb. nov., respectively. The type species of the new genus is Salimicrobium album. Strain BY-5(T) (=KCTC 3989(T)=CIP 108918(T)) is placed in the genus Salimicrobium as a novel species Salimicrobium luteum sp. nov.