Alkalibacillus flavidus 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-stain-positive, motile, rod-shaped bacterial strain, ISL-17 T , was isolated from a marine solar saltern of the Yellow Sea, Korea, and its taxonomic position was investigated by means of a polyphasic study. Strain ISL-17 T grew optimally at pH 8.5–9.0, at 37 °C and in the presence of approximately 10 % (w/v) NaCl. It contained meso -diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid in the peptidoglycan, MK-7 as the predominant menaquinone and iso-C 15 : 0 , anteiso-C 15 : 0 and iso-C 16 : 0 as the major fatty acids. The DNA G+C content was 48.1 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain ISL-17 T fell within the genus Alkalibacillus , clustering with Alkalibacillus salilacus BH163 T with a bootstrap resampling value of 100 %. Strain ISL-17 T exhibited 98.2 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to A . salilacus BH163 T and 95.8–96.5 % similarity to the type strains of the other Alkalibacillus species. The mean DNA–DNA relatedness value between strain ISL-17 T and A . salilacus KCTC 3916 T was 19 %. The phenotypic properties of strain ISL-17 T , together with its phylogenetic and genetic distinctiveness, enable this strain to be differentiated from recognized Alkalibacillus species. On the basis of phenotypic, phylogenetic and genetic data, strain ISL-17 T represents a novel species within the genus Alkalibacillus , for which the name Alkalibacillus flavidus sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain is ISL-17 T (=KCTC 13258 T =CCUG 56753 T ). The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain ISL-17 T is EU874387 .