Virgibacillus oceani sp. nov. isolated from ocean sediment.

A Gram-stain-positive, moderately halophilic, motile, strictly aerobic, endospore-forming, rod-shaped bacterium, strain MY11(T), was isolated from a sediment sample collected from the Western Pacific. This isolate grew in the presence of 0.5-18% (w/v) NaCl and at pH 6.0-10.0 and 15-45 °C; optimum growth was observed with 3.5% (w/v) NaCl and at pH 8.0-9.0 and 35-37 °C. Strain MY11(T) had menaquinone 7 (MK-7) as the predominant respiratory quinone and anteiso-C15:0 and anteiso-C17:0 as major fatty acids. Major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylglycerol. The DNA G+C content was 34.2 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences confirmed that strain MY11(T) was a member of the genus Virgibacillus, exhibiting sequence similarities of 95.3-97.6% to the type strains of recognized Virgibacillus species. Strain MY11(T) could be differentiated from recognized species of the genus Virgibacillus based on phenotypic characteristics, chemotaxonomic differences, phylogenetic analysis and DNA-DNA hybridization data. On the basis of the data presented, strain MY11(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Virgibacillus, for which the name Virgibacillus oceani sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is MY11(T) ( =LMG 28105(T) =CGMCC 1.12754(T) =MCCC 1A09973(T)).