Reclassification of Bacillus haloalkaliphilus Fritze 1996 as Alkalibacillus haloalkaliphilus gen. nov., comb. nov and the description of Alkalibacillus salilacus sp nov., a novel halophilic bacterium isolated from a salt lake in China

A spore-forming, halophilic bacterium, designated strain BH163(T), was isolated from a salt lake in China. Cells were motile, strictly aerobic rods that contained type A1 gamma peptidoglycan with meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. The isolate showed Gram- and catalase-positive reactions and formed a terminal endospore with a swollen sporangium. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C-15:0, iso-C-15:0, anteiso-C-17:0 and iso-C-16:0. The genomic DNA G + C content of the strain was 41(.)0 mol%. Comparative analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain BH163(T) formed a distinct line within the phyletic group classically defined as the genus Bacillus and was most closely related to the taxa [Bacillus] haloalkaliphilus DSM 5271(T) and Filobacillus milosensis DSM 13259(T), with 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of 95(.)9 and 94(.)5 %, respectively. On the basis of physiological and molecular properties, it is proposed that [Bacillus] haloalkaliphilus DSM 5271(T) is reclassified in the new genus Alkalibacillus as Alkalibacillus haloalkaliphilus gen. nov., comb. nov. Strain BH163(T) (= KCTC 3916(T) = DSM 16460(T)) was assigned as the type strain of the novel species Alkalibacillus salilacus.