Lentibacillus halophilus sp nov., from fish sauce in Thailand

Fifteen strains of extremely halophilic bacteria were isolated from fish sauce (nam-pla) collected in Thailand at various stages of the fish-fermentation process. The isolates were strictly aerobic, spore-forming, Gram-positive rods. They grew optimally in the presence of 20-26% NaCl. The cell-wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid. The predominant menaquinone was MK-7. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C-15: 0 and anteiso-C-17:0. Polar lipid analysis revealed the presence of phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol and two unidentified glycolipids. The DNA G +C content was 42(.)1-43(.)1 mol%. On the basis of the 16S rRNA gene T sequence, a representative strain, PS11-2(T), was found to be closely related to Lentibacillus juripiscarius JCM 12147(T) (97(.)3 % similarity). The 15 strains were included in the same species on the basis that the levels of DNA-DNA relatedness with strain PS11-2(T) were greater than 70 %. They could be distinguished from L. juripiscarius and other Lentibacillus species on the basis of several phenotypic characteristics and low levels of DNA-DNA relatedness (<= 19-4 %). Therefore, the strains represent a novel species of the genus Lentibaciflus, for which the name Lentibaciflus halophilus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is PS11-2(T)(=JCM 12149(T) =TISTR 1549(T) = PCU 240(T)).