Salibacterium halotolerans gen. nov., sp nov., a bacterium isolated from a salt pan, reclassification of Bacillus qingdaonensis as Salibacterium qingdaonense comb. nov and Bacillus halochares as Salibacterium halochares comb. nov.

Two novel Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped, non-motile, non-endospore-forming bacterial strains, S7(T) and IB5, were isolated from Khavda, India. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis they were identified as belonging to the class Bacilli, order Bacillales, family Bacillaceae, and were most closely related to Bacillus qingdaonensis CGMCC 1.6134(T) (97.3 %, sequence similarity), Bacillus halochares LMG 24571(T) (96.9 %), Bacillus salarius KCTC 3912(T) (95.6 %) and Bacillus aidingensis DSM 18341(T) (95.3 %). However, these strains shared only 88.2 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with Bacillus subtilis subsp. subtilis DSM 10(T), indicating that strains S7(T) and IB5 might not be members of the genus Bacillus. The DNA-DNA relatedness of these strains with B. qingdaonensis CGMCC 1.6134(T) was 42.9 +/- 0.8. The cell-wall peptidoglycan of strains S7(T) and IB5 contained meso-diaminopimelic acid, while the polar lipids included diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, a phospholipid and three unknown lipids. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was MK-7. anteiso-C-15 : 0 was the predominant fatty acid. The results of the phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and biochemical tests allowed a clear differentiation of strains S7(T) and IB5, suggesting that they represent a novel member of the family Bacillaceae, for which the name Salibacterium halotolerans gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Salibacterium halotolerans is S7(T) (=KCTC 33658(T) = CGMCC 1.15324(T)). Based on the results of the present study, it is also suggested that B. qingdaonensis and B. halochares should be transferred to this novel genus, as Salibacterium qingdaonense comb. nov. and Salibacterium halochares comb. nov., respectively.