Bacillus persicus sp. nov., a halophilic bacterium from a hypersaline lake

A novel gram-positive, slightly halophilic bacterium, designated strain B48(T), was isolated from soil around the hypersaline lake Aran-Bidgol in Iran and characterized taxonomically using a polyphasic approach. Cells of strain B48(T) were non-motile rods and produced ellipsoidal endospores at a central or subterminal position in swollen sporangia. Strain B48(T) was a strictly aerobic bacterium, catalase- and oxidase-positive. The strain was able to grow at NaCl concentrations of 0.5-10.0 % (w/v), with optimum growth occurring at 2.5 % (w/v) NaCl. The optimum temperature and pH for growth were 35 °C and pH 7.5-8.0, respectively. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain B48(T) was shown to belong to the genus Bacillus within the phylum Firmicutes and showed the closest phylogenetic similarity to the species Bacillus foraminis CV53(T) (97.4 %) and Bacillus purgationiresistens DS22(T) (96.9 %). The DNA G+C content of this new isolate was 40.1 mol%. The major cellular fatty acids of strain B48(T) were iso-C15 : 0 and anteiso-C15 : 0, and its polar lipid pattern consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, an aminophospholipid and two unknown phospholipids. The only quinone present was menaquinone 7 (MK-7). The peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. All these features confirm the placement of isolate B48(T) within the genus Bacillus. DNA-DNA hybridization experiments revealed a low level of relatedness between strain B48(T) and Bacillus foraminis IBRC-M 10625(T) (8.1 %). On the basis of polyphasic evidence from this study, a new species of the genus Bacillus, Bacillus persicus sp. nov., is proposed, with strain B48(T) ( = IBRC-M 10115(T) = DSM 25386(T) = CECT 8001(T)) as the type strain.