Salinibacillus xinjiangensis sp nov., a halophilic bacterium from a hypersaline lake

Gram-positive, endospore-forming, rod-shaped bacterium, designated isolate J4(T), was isolated from a neutral saline lake sample from Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic investigation. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that strain J4(T) is most closely related to Salinibacillus aidingensis 25-7(T) (with 96.7% similarity), Salinibacillus kushneri 8-2(T) (96.5%), Ornithinibacillus scapharcae TW25(T) (96.4 %), Salirhabdus euzebyi CVS-14(T) (96.4 %) and Ornithinibacillus californiensis MB-9(T) (96.2%). Chemotaxonomic analysis showed menaquinone-7 (MK-7) to be the major isoprenoid quinone of strain J4(T); diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylglycerol were the major cellular polar lipids and the cell wall contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C-(15:0) and anteiso-C-15:0. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain J4(T) was determined to be 36.2 mol%. Strain J4(T) was positive for catalase activity and negative for oxidase activity. Strain J4(T) was observed to grow at 25-50 degrees C (optimal 35-42 degrees C), pH 6.5-8.0 (optimal 7.0-7.5) and in media containing 1-21% (w/v) NaCl (optimal 9-12%). Based on these data, strain J4(T) represents a novel species of the genus Salinibacillus and the name Salinibacillus xinjiangensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is J4(T) (=CGMCC 1.12331(T)=JCM 18732(T)).