Bacillus funiculus sp. nov., novel filamentous isolates from activated sludge

V. P. Ajithkumar, B. Ajithkumar, R. Iriye and T. Sakai Laboratory of Ecological and Toxicological Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Shinshu University (United Graduate School of Agriculture, Gifu University), 8304 Minamiminowa, Kamiina, Nagano 399-4598, Japan A novel filamentous Bacillus strain, NAF001(T), was reported previously that produces endospores and spore-like resting cells; the latter outgrow by budding. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rDNA gene sequences reported in the same paper speculated on the proposal of a novel species for this isolate. This communication describes the DNA--DNA relatedness of strain NAF001(T) to various members of the genus Bacillus and its whole-cell fatty acid and quinone profiles, in order to authenticate the creation of a novel species, for which the name Bacillus funiculus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NAF001(T) (=JCM 11201(T)=CIP 107128(T)). Further, features of the binding points between filaments of strain NAF001(T) that enable it to form extremely long filaments are captured by electron microscopy.