Melghiribacillus thermohalophilus gen. nov., sp nov., a novel filamentous, endospore-forming, thermophilic and halophilic bacterium

A novel filamentous, endospore-forming, thermophilic and moderately halophilic bacterium designated strain Nari2A(T) was isolated from soil collected from an Algerian salt lake, Chott Melghir. The novel isolate was Gram-staining-positive, aerobic, catalase-negative and oxidase-positive. Optimum growth occurred at 50-55 degrees C, 7-10% (w/v) NaCl and pH 7-8. The strain exhibited 95.4, 95.4 and 95.2% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Thalassobacillus devorans G19.1(T), Sediminibacillus halophilus EN8d(T) and Virgibacillus kekensis YIM-kknyl 6(T), respectively. The major menaquinone was MK-7. The polar lipid profile consisted of phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, three unknown phosphoglycolipids and two unknown phospholipids. The predominant cellular fatty acids were iso-C-15:0 and iso-C-17:0. The DNA G+C content was 41.9 molok. Based on the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data, strain Nari2A(T) is considered to represent a novel species of a new genus in the family Bacillaceae, order Bacillales, for which the name Melghiribacillus thermohalophilus gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Melghiribacillus thermohalophilus is Nari2A(T) (=DSM 25894(T)=CCUG 62543(T)).