Virgibacillus flavescens sp. nov., isolated from marine sediment.

A Gram-stain-variable, rod-shaped, motile bacterial strain, designated S1-20T, was isolated from marine sediment of the Yellow Sea in China. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain S1-20T was related to the genus Virgibacillus and had highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities with the type strains of Virgibacillus necropolis (98.1 %), Virgibacillus arcticus (97.7 %) and Virgibacillus carmonensis (97.3 %). The predominant cellular fatty acids of strain S1-20T were anteiso-C15 : 0 and anteiso-C17 : 0. The main menaquinone was MK-7. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain S1-20T was 38.3 mol%. The polar lipids profile contained diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, five unidentified phospholipids, one unknown aminophospholipid and an aminolipid. Combined data from phenotypic, phylogenetic and DNA-DNA relatedness studies demonstrated that strain S1-20T is a representative of a novel species of the genus Virgibacillus, for which the name Virgibacillus flavescens sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is S1-20T ( = LMG 28381T = DSM 29015T).