Bacillus deserti sp. nov., a novel bacterium isolated from the desert of Xinjiang, China

A Gram-positive, rod-shaped, motile and spore-forming bacterium, designated ZLD-8T, was isolated from a desert soil sample collected from Xinjiang Province in north-west China, and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic analysis. This isolate grew optimally at 30°C and pH 7.0. It grew with 0–4% NaCl (optimum, 0–1%). Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain ZLD-8T was closely related to members of the genus Bacillus, exhibiting the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Bacillus kribbensis DSM 17871T (98.0%). The levels of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with respect to other Bacillus species with validly published names were less than 96.3%. The DNA G + C content of strain ZLD-8T was 40.1 mol%. The strain contained MK-7 as the predominant menaquinone. The diagnostic diamino acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine. The major fatty acids (>5% of total fatty acids) were anteiso-C15:0 (39.56%), iso-C14:0 (25.69%), C16:1 ω7c alcohol (10.13%) and iso-C15:0 (5.27%). These chemotaxonomic results supported the affiliation of strain ZLD-8T to the genus Bacillus. However, low DNA–DNA relatedness values and distinguishing phenotypic characteristics allowed genotypic and phenotypic differentiation of strain ZLD-8T from recognized Bacillus species. On the basis of the polyphasic evidence presented, strain ZLD-8T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillusdeserti sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ZLD-8T (=CCTCC AB 207173T = KCTC 13246T).