Virgibacillus byunsanensis sp. nov., isolated from a marine solar saltern

Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), PO Box 115, Yusong, Taejon, Republic of Korea Correspondence Jung-Hoon Yoon jhyoon{at}kribb.re.kr A Gram-variable, motile, endospore-forming and rod-shaped bacterial strain, ISL-24 T , was isolated from a marine solar saltern of the Yellow Sea, Korea, and its taxonomic position was investigated by a polyphasic study. Strain ISL-24 T grew optimally at pH 7.0–8.0, at 30–37 °C and in the presence of 8 % (w/v) NaCl. It contained MK-7 as the predominant menaquinone and anteiso-C 15 : 0 as the predominant fatty acid. The DNA G+C content was 37.6 mol%. A phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain ISL-24 T fell within the genus Virgibacillus , clustering with Virgibacillus carmonensis LMG 20964 T and Virgibacillus necropolis LMG 19488 T , with a bootstrap resampling value of 92.3 %, and exhibiting 97.3 and 97.4 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, respectively, to these strains. Strain ISL-24 T exhibited 94.8–96.8 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to the type strains of the other Virgibacillus species. Mean DNA–DNA relatedness values between strain ISL-24 T and V . carmonensis DSM 14868 T and V . necropolis DSM 14866 T were 11 and 19 %, respectively. Differential phenotypic properties of strain ISL-24 T , together with the phylogenetic and genetic distinctiveness, revealed that this strain is different from recognized Virgibacillus species. On the basis of phenotypic, phylogenetic and genetic data, strain ISL-24 T represents a novel species of the genus Virgibacillus , for which the name Virgibacillus byunsanensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ISL-24 T (=KCTC 13259 T =CCUG 56754 T ). The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain ISL-24 T is FJ357159 . Differential phenotypic characteristics of strain ISL-24 T and other Virgibacillus species are available as supplementary material with the online version of this paper.