Ornithinibacillus halotolerans sp. nov., isolated from a saline soil

A Gram-staining-positive, aerobic, motile, endospore-forming, rod-shaped bacterium, designated GD04T, was isolated from a saline soil sample taken in southern China and was characterized by means of a polyphasic approach. Growth occurred with 0.5-12% (w/v) NaCl (optimum 1-2%) and at pH 7.0-9.5 (optimum pH 8.0) and 10-45 °C (optimum 30 °C). According to the results of a phylogenetic analysis, strain GD04T belonged to the genus Ornithinibacillus, and was related most closely to type strains of the species Ornithinibacillus bavariensis and Ornithinibacillus contaminans (96.5 and 96.5% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities, respectively). The peptidoglycan amino acid type was A4β, containing L-ornithine and d-aspartic acid. The major respiratory quinone was menaquinone-7 (MK-7). The polar lipid profile of strain GD04T contained predominantly diphosphatidylglycerol with moderate amounts of phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, an unknown phospholipid and an unknown lipid, and a minor amount of another unknown lipid. The G+C content of genomic DNA was 39.3 mol%. The dominant cellular fatty acids were iso-C16:0, iso-C15:0 and anteiso-C15:0. The phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, phylogenetic and genotypic data indicated that strain GD04T represents a novel species of the genus Ornithinibacillus, for which the name Ornithinibacillus halotolerans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is GD04T (=KCTC 33116T=CGMCC 1.12408T).