Bacillus salinus sp. nov., isolated from commercial solar salt

Two strains of Gram-stain-positive, strictly aerobic, motile, spore-forming, rod-shaped, moderately halotolerant bacteria, designated as HMF5848^T and HME7618, were isolated from salt/brine and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic investigation. Growth of both yellow-coloured strains occurred in the presence of 1-9 % NaCl (w/v; optimum, 2-3 %), at 15-45 °C (optimum, 37 °C) and pH 6-9 (optimum, pH 7). The major fatty acids were iso-C_15 : 0, iso-C_16 : 0 and anteiso-C_15 : 0. The cell-wall peptidoglycan was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The only respiratory quinone was menaquinone-7. The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, four unidentified glycolipids, three unidentified phospholipids and two unidentified polar lipids. DNA G+C content was 37.4 mol%. Phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strains HMF5848^T and HME7618 clustered with Bacillus luteolus YIM 93174^T. Strains HMF5848^T showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities to Bacillus humi LMG 22167^T (96.1 %), Bacillus isabeliae CVS-8^T (96.0 %) and Bacillus luteolus YIM 93174^T (96.0 %). The values of in silico DNA-DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity between strains HMF5848^T and B. humi DSM 16318^T were 25.8 and 69.7 %, respectively. On the basis of phylogenetic, physiological and chemotaxonomic properties, strain HMF5848^T represents a novel species, Bacillus salinus sp. nov. The type strain is HMF5848^T (=KCTC 43010^T=CECT 9695^T).