Sediminibacillus halophilus gen. nov., sp. nov., a moderately halophilic, Gram-positive bacterium from a hypersaline lake.

A Gram-positive, moderately halophilic bacterium, designated strain EN8d(T), was isolated from sediment from Lake Erliannor in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. Cells were facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped and motile and did not display endospore formation. Isolate EN8dT grew in a complex medium supplemented with 0-20 % (w/v) marine salts (optimally at 5-7.5 %, w/v). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons showed that strain EN8dT was a member of the family Bacillaceae, belonging to a cluster with Thalassobacillus (96.3 % gene sequence similarity) and Halobacillus (95.0-96.0 %), albeit emerging as an independent lineage from members of these two genera. Strain EN8dT contained cell-wall peptidoglycan based on meso-diaminopimelic acid and possessed MK-7 as the major respiratory isoprenoid quinone. The major fatty acids were anteiso-C15:0 and anteiso-C17:0. The polar lipid pattern consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and an unidentified glycolipid. The DNA G+C content was 47.5 mol%. Strain EN8dT could be clearly differentiated from its phylogenetic neighbours on the basis of several phenotypic, genotypic and chemotaxonomic features. Therefore strain EN8dT is considered to represent a novel genus and species, for which the name Sediminibacillus halophilus gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Sediminibacillus halophilus is EN8dT (=CCM 7364T =CECT 7148T =CGMCC 1.6199T =DSM 18088T).