Bacillus huizhouensis sp. nov., isolated from a paddy field soil

A Gram-stain positive, facultative aerobic bacterium, designated as strain GSS03(T), was isolated from a paddy field soil. The cells were observed to be endospore forming, rod-shaped and motile with flagella. The organism was found to grow optimally at 35 °C at pH 7.0 and in the presence of 1 % NaCl. The strain was classified as a novel taxon within the genus Bacillus on the basis of phenotypic and phylogenetic analyses. The closest phylogenetic relatives were identified as Bacillus psychrosaccharolyticus DSM 6(T) (97.61 %), Bacillus muralis DSM 16288(T) (97.55 %), Bacillus asahii JCM 12112(T) (97.48 %), Bacillus simplex DSM 1321(T) (97.48 %) and "Bacillus frigoritolerans" DSM 8801(T) (97.38 %). The menaquinone was identified as MK-7, the major cellular fatty acid was identified as anteiso-C15:0 and the major cellular polar lipids as phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylmonomethylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and three unknown polar lipids. The DNA G+C content was determined to be 40.2 mol%. The DNA-DNA relatedness with the closest relatives was below 48 %. Therefore, on the basis of all the results, strain GSS03(T) is considered to represent a novel species within the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus huizhouensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is GSS03(T) (=KCTC 33172(T) =CCTCC AB 2013237(T)).