Bacillus selenatarsenatis sp nov., a selenate- and arsenate-reducing bacterium isolated from the effluent drain of a glass-manufacturing plant

A facultatively anaerobic, selenate- and arsenate-reducing bacterium, designated strain SF-1(T), was isolated from a selenium-contaminated sediment obtained from an effluent drain of a glass-manufacturing plant in Japan. The bacterium stained Gram-positive and was a motile, spore-forming rod capable of respiring with selenate, arsenate and nitrate as terminal electron acceptors. The major cellular fatty acids of the strain were iso-C-15:0, iso-C-17:1 omega 10c and C-16:1 omega 7c alcohol. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 42.8 mol%. Though the nearest phylogenetic neighbour was Bacillus jeotgali JCM 10885(T), with a 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 99.6%, DNA-DNA hybridization studies showed only 14% relatedness between these strains, a level that is clearly below the value recommended to delimit different species. This, together with the phenotypic differences (utilization of electron acceptors, NaCl tolerance), suggests that strain SF-1(T) represents a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus selenatarsenatis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SF-1(T) (=JCM 14380(T) = DSM 18680(T)).