Bacillus shivajii sp nov., isolated from a water sample of Sambhar salt lake, India

A novel Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped, motile, spore-forming, strictly aerobic, alkali-and halo-tolerant bacterium, designated strain AK72(T), was isolated from a water sample collected from Sambhar salt lake, Rajasthan, India. The colony appears circular, shiny, smooth, translucent or slightly pale in colour and convex with an entire margin after 48 h incubation at 37 degrees C with pH 9. Growth of the bacterium occurred at 10-42 degrees C (optimum, 25-37 degrees C), at salinities of 0.5-10% (w/v) NaCl (optimum 3-5% NaCl) and pH of 6-10 (optimum pH 9). Strain AK72(T) was positive for oxidase, catalase, nitrate reductase, phenylalanine deaminase, ornithine decarboxylase, aesculinase, lipase and urease activities. The predominant fatty acids were iso-C-15:(0), anteiso-C-15:0 and iso-C-16:0 and the cell-wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. The major polar lipids of the strain were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified aminophospholipid, three unidentified phospholipids and three unidentified lipids. The genomic DNA G+C content of the strain AK72(T) was 36.8 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain AK72(T) was closely related to Bacillus cellulosilyticus (96.5 %) and Bacillus vedderi (96.3 %), but the novel strain AK72(T) formed a separate clade with Bacillus aurantiacus whereas B. cellulosilyticus and B. vedderi were clustered in a separate clade. The above data in combination with the phenotypic characteristics and phylogenetic data inferred that strain AK72(T) represents a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus shivajii sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is AK72(T) (=MTCC 12636(T) =KCTC 33981(T) = JCM 32183(T)).