Oceanobacillus halotolerans sp. nov., a bacterium isolated from salt lake in Xinjiang province, north-west China.

A bacterial strain, designated YIM 98839, was isolated from the hypersaline sediment of Aiding Lake in Xinjiang province, North-West China. The strain was Gram-stain-positive, motile, aerobic, produced oval subterminal or central endospores in swollen sporangia. The whole-cell hydrolysates contain meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic cell-wall diamino acid. Galactose, fucose and ribose are the major whole-cell sugars. The phospholipids are diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and one unknown phospholipid. The predominant menaquinone is MK-7. The major fatty acids are anteiso-C, anteiso-C and iso-C. The DNA G + C content of the type strain is 37.0 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the isolate belongs to the genus Oceanobacillus. However, it differed from its closest relative, Oceanobacillus limi H9B in many physiological characteristics. Moreover, the DNA-DNA relatedness values between the novel isolate and the relative type strain was 20.2%. Based on comparative analysis of polyphasic taxonomic data, strain YIM 98839 represents a novel species of the genus Oceanobacillus, for which the name Oceanobacillus halotolerans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM 98839 (= CGMCC 1.17002  = KCTC 43140).