Bacillus fengqiuensis sp. nov., isolated from a typical sandy loam soil under long-term fertilization

A Gram-staining-positive, endospore-forming, moderately alkaliphilic bacterium, strain NPK15T, was isolated from a typical sandy loam soil under long-term NPK fertilization in northern China and was subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. The diamino acid of the cell-wall peptidoglycan of strain NPK15T was found to be meso-diaminopimelic acid and the cell-wall sugars were xylose, glucose and traces of mannose. The only respiratory quinone found in strain NPK15T was menaquinone 7 (MK-7). The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C15 : 0, C16 : 0 and C16 : 1ω6c/C16 : 1ω7c. The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol. Phylogenetic analysis of the strain based on its 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that it was related most closely to ‘Bacillus thaonhiensis’ KACC 17216 (99.59 %), B. songklensis KCTC 13881T (99.52 %) and B. abyssalis CCTCC AB 2012074T (99.00 %). DNA–DNA hybridization results indicated that the strain was distinct from other species of the genus Bacillus, the degree of relatedness being 35.4 % with B. abyssalis CCTCC AB 2012074T, 39.7 % with B. songklensis KCTC 13881T and 51.2 % with ‘B. thaonhiensis’ KACC 17216. The DNA G+C content of strain NPK15T was 45.5 mol%. Phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and molecular analyses identified strain NPK15T as a member of a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus fengqiuensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NPK15T ( = DSM 26745T = CCTCC AB 2013156T).