Bacillus arenosi sp nov., Bacillus arvi sp nov and Bacillus humi sp nov., isolated from soil

A group of nine Gram-positive endospore-forming bacteria was isolated from soil of the Drentse A agricultural research area in the Netherlands. Using (GTG)(5)-PCR genomic fingerprinting and fatty acid analysis, the nine isolates were divided into three consistent groups. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of representative strains, the nine isolates were shown to belong to the genus Bacillus. The first group of four isolates was most closely related to Bacillus carboniphilus (95(.)5 %) and Bacillus sporothermodurans (95(.)5 %). The second and third groups of three and two isolates, respectively, showed highest sequence similarity to Bacillus neidei (97(.)0 and 97(.)1 %, respectively) and Bacillus pycnus (both 96(.)7 %). A DNA-DNA relatedness study confirmed the consistency of the three groups delineated by (GTG)5-PCR and fatty acid analysis. A small number of phenotypic characters allowed differentiation of the three groups of isolates. The three groups therefore represent novel species, for which the names Bacillus humi, Bacillus arenosi and Bacillus arvi are proposed, with LMG 22167(T) (= DSM 16318(T)), LMG 22166(T) (=DSM 16319(T)) and LMG 22165(T) (=DSM 16317(T)) as the respective type strains.