Pontibacillus salicampi sp. nov., a moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from saltern soil.

A Gram-stain-positive, moderately halophilic bacterium, designated BH043(T), was isolated from saltern soil of Gomso in Korea. Cells were motile rods, producing ellipsoidal endospores at a terminal position in swollen sporangia. Strain BH043(T) was strictly aerobic, grew at pH 6.0-10.0 (optimal growth at pH 7.5), at 10-55 °C (optimal growth at 30 °C) and at salinities of 1-20 % (w/v) NaCl, growing optimally with 7 % (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain BH043(T) belongs to the family Bacillaceae and was most closely related to the type strains of the five recognized species of the genus Pontibacillus, showing sequence similarity to Pontibacillus yanchengensis Y32(T) (97.5 % similarity), Pontibacillus marinus BH030004(T) (97.4 %), Pontibacillus chungwhensis BH030062(T) (97.0 %), Pontibacillus litoralis JSM 072002(T) (96.4 %) and Pontibacillus halophilus JSM 076056(T) (96.2 %). The major cellular fatty acids of strain BH043(T) were iso-C15 : 0 and anteiso-C15 : 0. The genomic DNA G+C content was 42.5 mol%. The major isoprenoid quinone was MK-7 and meso-diaminopimelic acid was present in the cell-wall peptidoglycan as the diagnostic diamino acid. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol. DNA-DNA relatedness between strain BH043(T) and the type strains of other species of the genus Pontibacillus, P. yanchengensis CGMCC 1.10680(T) and P. marinus KCTC 3917(T) and P. chungwhensis KCTC 3890(T), was 35, 24 and 18 %, respectively. On the basis of polyphasic analysis from this study, strain BH043(T) represents a novel species of the genus Pontibacillus for which the name Pontibacillus salicampi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is BH043(T) ( = KACC 17607(T) = NBRC 109831(T) = NCAIM B.02529(T)).