Metabacillus elymi sp. nov., isolated from the Rhizosphere of Elymus tsukushiensis, a plant native to the Dokdo Islands, Republic of Korea.

Dokdo islands in Republic of Korea, is not suited to survive plant because strong wind, low organic content and high salinity. Nevertheless, 64 taxa of plants have a symbiotic relationship with microbe. The Metabacillus elymi KUDC1714 was isolated from the rhizosphere of Elymus tsukushiensis collected from Dokdo Islands. This bacterial strain was Gram-stain positive, non-motile, non-spore forming, aerobic and rod-shape bacteria with 0.4-0.5 × 2.5-3.0 μm in size. Colonies were smooth, yellowish-white circular and 2.0-3.0 mm in diameter. KUDC1714 was capable of growing at 10-45 °C (optimum, 30 °C), pH 7-11 (optimum, pH 8) and 0-8.0% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 1.0-2.0%). Flagella were not observed by transmission electron microscopy. Phylogenetic analyses, based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, showed that KUDC1714 belonged to the genus Metabacillus formed a phyletic lineage within the genus Metabacillus of the family Bacillaceae. The strain KUDC1714 was most closely related to Metabacillus sediminilitoris DSL-17 (98.2%), Metabacillus litoralis SW-211 (98.2%) and Metabacillus halosaccharovorans E33 (97.7%) based on 16S rRNA gene sequence. In silico DNA-DNA hybridization using genome-to-genome distance calculator were analysed at 25.8% and 23.5% in strain KUDC1714 and Metabacillus sediminilitoris DSL-17, and strain KUDC1714 and Metabacillus litoralis SW-211, respectively. Strain KUDC1714 and its closet type strain were all below cut-off point of the average nucleotide identity and average amino acid identity values. The genome contains 5197 CDSs, 3 rRNAs, 118 tRNAs, 5 ncRNAs. The genomic DNA G + C content was 34.8 mol%. Its polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and its major fatty acids were anteiso-C and iso-C. The strain KUDC1714 contained menaquinone-7 as major isoprenoid quinone. Based on its genetic data, physiological and biochemical characteristics, strain KUDC1714 should be considered a novel species of the genus Metabacillus, for which we propose the name Metabacillus elymi sp. nov. the type strain is KUDC1714 (= KCTC 33222, = DSM 27608).