Salipaludibacillus aurantiacus gen. nov., sp. nov. a novel alkali tolerant bacterium, reclassification of Bacillus agaradhaerens as Salipaludibacillus agaradhaerens comb. nov. and Bacillus neizhouensis as Salipaludibacillus neizhouensis comb. nov.

Two novel (S9 and S12) Gram-stain-positive, rod shaped, non-motile and endospore forming bacteria were isolated from Narayan Sarovar lake, in India. The high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (99.9 %) and DNA-DNA relatedness (86±2 %) indicated that strains S9 and S12 were members of a single species. Based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, these strains were identified as belonging to the class Firmibacteria and were most closely related to Bacillus agaradhaerens PN-105 (96.8 % sequence similarity), Bacillus neizhouensis JSM 071004 (96.5 %) and Bacillus luteus JC167 (96.1 %). However, these strains shared only 90.3 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with Bacillus subtilis subsp. subtilis DSM 10, indicating that they might not be members of the genus Bacillus. The cell-wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid. Polar lipids included diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, one unknown phospholipid and an unknown lipid. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was MK-7. Major fatty acids (>5 %) included anteiso-C15 : 0, C16 : 0, iso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C17 : 0, iso-C16 : 0 and summed feature 3. The results of phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and biochemical tests allowed a clear differentiation of strains S9 and S12 from all other members of the family Bacillaceae.The strains therefore represent a novel member of a new genus from the family Bacillaceae, for which the name Salipaludibacillus aurantiacus gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is S9 (=KCTC 33633=LMG 28644). Based on the present study, it is also proposed to transfer Bacillus agaradhaerens and Bacillus neizhouensis to this new genus as Salipaludibacillus agaradhaerens comb. nov. and Salipaludibacillus neizhouensis comb. nov.