Planococcus salinus sp. nov., a moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from a saline-alkali soil

A novel aerobic, Gram-stain-positive, motile, moderately halophilic and coccoid bacterial strain, designated LCB217 , was isolated from a saline-alkali soil in north-western China and identified using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Growth occurred with 3-15 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum 3-5 %), at 10-45 °C (optimum 30 °C) and at pH 7.0-9.0 (optimum pH 9.0). Strain LCB217 contained MK-7 and MK-8 as the predominant menaquinones and anteiso-C15 : 0, iso-C14 : 0 and iso-C16 : 0 as the major fatty acids. The polar lipids from strain LCB217 consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, one unidentified phospholipid, one unidentified aminophospholipid and one unidentified lipid. The peptidoglycan type was A4α (l-Lys-d-Glu). Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that strain LCB217 belonged to the genus Planococcus and was closely related to the type strains Planococcus plakortidis AS/ASP6 (II) (98.2 % similarity), Planococcus maitriensis S1 (97.7 %) and Planococcus salinarum ISL-16 (97.2 %). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 49.4 mol%. DNA-DNA relatedness values between strain LCB217 andPlanococcusplakortidis AS/ASP6 (II) , Planococcusmaitriensis S1 andPlanococcussalinarum ISL-16 were 29.5, 38.1 and 39.5 %, respectively. On the basis of the phenotypic, phylogenetic and genomic data, strain LCB217 represents a novel species of the genus Planococcus, for which the name Planococcus salinus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LCB217 (=CGMCC 1.15685 =KCTC 33861 ).