Bacillus deserti sp. nov., a novel bacterium isolated from the desert of Xinjiang, China.

A Gram-positive, rod-shaped, motile and spore-forming bacterium, designated ZLD-8(T), was isolated from a desert soil sample collected from Xinjiang Province in north-west China, and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic analysis. This isolate grew optimally at 30°C and pH 7.0. It grew with 0-4% NaCl (optimum, 0-1%). Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain ZLD-8(T) was closely related to members of the genus Bacillus, exhibiting the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Bacillus kribbensis DSM 17871(T) (98.0%). The levels of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with respect to other Bacillus species with validly published names were less than 96.3%. The DNA G + C content of strain ZLD-8(T) was 40.1 mol%. The strain contained MK-7 as the predominant menaquinone. The diagnostic diamino acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine. The major fatty acids (>5% of total fatty acids) were anteiso-C15:0 (39.56%), iso-C14:0 (25.69%), C16:1 ω7c alcohol (10.13%) and iso-C15:0 (5.27%). These chemotaxonomic results supported the affiliation of strain ZLD-8(T) to the genus Bacillus. However, low DNA-DNA relatedness values and distinguishing phenotypic characteristics allowed genotypic and phenotypic differentiation of strain ZLD-8(T) from recognized Bacillus species. On the basis of the polyphasic evidence presented, strain ZLD-8(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus deserti sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ZLD-8(T) (=CCTCC AB 207173(T) = KCTC 13246(T)).