Halobacillus dabanensis sp. nov: And Halobacillus aidingensis sp. nov., isolated from salt lakes in Xinjiang, China

Abstract

Two moderately halophilic spore-forming bacteria were isolated from salt lakes in the Xinjiang region of China. The two strains, designated AD-6T and D-8T, were aerobic, Gram-positive, rod-shaped and motile by means of peritrichous flagella. Strains AD-6T and D-8T grew in the presence of 0.5-20% and 0.5-25% (w/v) NaCl in complex medium, respectively. Their cell-wall peptidoglycan was of the L-Orn-D-Asp type. The major menaquinone found in both strains was menaquinone-7 (MK-7). The fatty acid profile contained a large amount of branched fatty acids; the main fatty acids were anteiso-C15:0, anteiso-C17:0, iso-C15:0 and iso-C16:0. The DNA G+C content of strains D-8T and AD-6T was 41.4 and 42.2 mol%, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strains D-8T and AD-6T were located in the genus Halobacillus. Levels of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity between the isolated strains and the type strains of Halobacillus species were in the range 96.2-99.5%. DNA-DNA relatedness values of 17.0-52.2% were found between the two strains and other Halobacillus species. The DNA-DNA relatedness value between D-8T and AD-6T was 50.6%. On the basis of phenotypic and chemotaxonomic properties, phylogenetic analysis and genomic distinctiveness, strains D-8T and AD-6T should be placed in the genus Halobacillus as two novel species, for which the names Halobacillus dabanensis sp. nov. (type strain=JCM 12772T=CGMCC 1.3704T) and Halobacillus aidingensis sp. nov. (type strain =JCM 12771T=CGMCC 1.3703T) are proposed, respectively. © 2005 IUMS.