sp. nov., isolated from coastal sediment.

Two Gram-stain-positive, facultatively anaerobic, motile, endospore-forming, rod-shaped bacteria, designated CLL-3-40 and CLL-7-23, were isolated from coastal sediment sampled in Changyi, Shandong Province, PR China. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that these strains were related to the genus and close to six type strains of species within the group. In phenotypic characterization tests, strain CLL-3-40 could grow at 15-50 °C (optimum, 37 °C) and in media with pH 5-9 (optimum pH 7.0), and tolerate up to 12 % (w/v) NaCl. The fermentation broth supernatant extracted by ethyl acetate of strain CLL-3-40 could inhibit aquaculture pathogenic vibrios. The predominant cellular fatty acids of strain CLL-3-40 were anteiso-C (30.7 %) and iso-C (31.5 %); the peptidoglycan from cell-wall contained -diaminopimelic acid; the predominant quinone was menaquinone 7; and the major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified glycolipid and two unidentified phospholipids. The digital DNA-DNA hybridization values and average nucleotide identities among strains CLL-3-40 and CLL-7-23 and their close type strains were less than 21.9 and 48.4 %, respectively, thereby indicating that strain CLL-3-40 should represent a novel species of the genus . The genomic DNA G+C contents were 38.4 mol% in strain CLL-3-40 and 38.3 mol% in strain CLL-7-23. The 12 biosynthetic gene clusters of strain CLL-3-40 were predicted based on results from the online server antiSMASH. Based upon the consensus of phenotypic and genotypic results, strain CLL-3-40 should be classified as representing a novel species of the genus , for which the name sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CLL-3-40 (= MCCC 1A14857=JCM 35755).