Bacillus korlensis sp. nov., a moderately halotolerant bacterium isolated from a sand soil sample in China.

A Gram-positive-staining, rod-shaped, motile, spore-forming and moderately halotolerant bacterium, designated ZLC-26(T), was isolated from a sand soil sample collected from Xinjiang Province, China, and was characterized by using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. This isolate grew optimally at 30-37 degrees C and pH 7-8. It grew with 0-8% NaCl (optimum, 0-2 %). Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain ZLC-26(T) was closely related to members of the genus Bacillus, exhibiting the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities to Bacillus nealsonii DSM 15077(T) (97.1 %), B. shackletonii LMG 18435(T) (97.0 %), B. siralis 171544(T) (97.0 %), B. circulans IAM 12462(T) (96.7 %) and B. pocheonensis Gsoil 420(T) (96.7 %). Strain ZLC-26(T) contained MK-7 as the predominant menaquinone. The diagnostic diamino acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C(15 : 0), C(16 : 1)omega11c and anteiso-C(15 : 0). The DNA G+C content was 38.2 mol%. These chemotaxonomic results supported the affiliation of strain ZLC-26(T) to the genus Bacillus. However, low DNA-DNA relatedness values and distinguishing phenotypic characteristics allowed genotypic and phenotypic differentiation of strain ZLC-26(T) from recognized Bacillus species. On the basis of the evidence presented, strain ZLC-26(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus korlensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ZLC-26(T) (=CCTCC AB 207172(T)=NRRL B-51302(T)).