Ornithinibacillus halophilus sp. nov., a moderately halophilic, Gram-stain-positive, endospore-forming bacterium from a hypersaline lake.

A novel Gram-stain-positive, moderately halophilic bacterium, designated strain G8B(T), was isolated from water of the hypersaline lake Aran-Bidgol in Iran and characterized taxonomically using a polyphasic approach. Cells of strain G8B(T) were rod-shaped, motile and produced oval endospores at a terminal position in swollen sporangia. Strain G8B(T) was strictly aerobic, catalase-positive and oxidase-negative. The strain was able to grow at NaCl concentrations of 0.5-12.5 % (w/v), with optimum growth occurring at 5-7.5 % (w/v) NaCl. The optimum temperature and pH for growth were 35-40 °C and pH 7.5-8.0, respectively. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain G8B(T) was shown to belong to the genus Ornithinibacillus within the phylum Firmicutes and showed closest phylogenetic similarity with Ornithinibacillus bavariensis WSBC 24001(T) (97.6 %). The DNA G+C content of strain G8B(T) was 36.9 mol%. The major cellular fatty acids of strain G8B(T) were anteiso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C17 : 0, iso-C15 : 0 and iso-C16 : 0, and its polar lipid pattern consisted of phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, four unknown phospholipids and an unknown aminolipid. The isoprenoid quinones were MK-7 (98 %) and MK-8 (2 %). Strain G8B(T) contained a peptidoglycan of type A4β, l-Orn-d-Asp. All these features confirmed the placement of isolate G8B(T) within the genus Ornithinibacillus. DNA-DNA hybridization experiments revealed a low level of relatedness (6 %) between strain G8B(T) and Ornithinibacillus bavariensis DSM 15681(T). On the basis of evidence from this study, a novel species of the genus Ornithinibacillus, Ornithinibacillus halophilus sp. nov., is proposed, with strain G8B(T) ( = IBRC-M 10683(T) = KCTC 13822(T)) as the type strain.