Bacillus alkalitolerans sp. nov., isolated from marine sediment near a hydrothermal vent.

A Gram-stain-positive, endospore-forming, rod-shaped, motile and strictly aerobic strain, designated T3-209, was isolated from sediment sampled at a water depth of 1206 m of the southern Okinawa Trough at station T1 (25.07° N, 122.58° E) near the Tangyin hydrothermal vent during an expedition on the R/V Kexue in May 2014. The strain was able to grow at a temperature range of 10-42 °C (optimum 28 °C). Growth was observed at NaCl concentrations (w/v) of 0-6 % (optimum 0 %). The pH range for growth was 7.0-9.0 (optimum 8.0). The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that strain T3-209 belonged to the genus Bacillus within the family Bacillaceae and was most closely related to Bacillus drentensis LMG 21831 and Bacillus bataviensis LMG 21833, with the same sequence similarity (97.0 %), but shared relatively low levels of similarity (92.6-96.9 %) to the type strains of other Bacillus species. The peptidoglycan type of strain T3-209 was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The predominant cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C15 : 0, iso-C15 : 0 and alcohol-C16 : 1ω7c. The respiratory quinone was menaquinone-7. The polar lipids of strain T3-209 comprised phosphatidylglycerol, two unidentified phospholipids and one unidentified aminolipid. The DNA G+C content was 41.8 mol%. Combining results of phylogenetic analysis, phenotypic characterization and chemotaxonomic studies, strain T3-209 represents a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus alkalitolerans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is T3-209 (=KCTC 33631=DSM 29135=MCCC 1K00503).