Desertibacillus haloalkaliphilus gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from a saline desert.

Two Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped and endospore-forming bacteria that represent a single species, designated strains KJ1-10-99T and KJ1-10-93, were isolated from a saline desert of Little Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, India. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the isolates belonged to the family Bacillaceae and were closely related to each other with 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 99.9 %. However, these two isolates formed a novel phylogenetic branch within this family. Both strains were aerobic, catalase and oxidase positive, and could grow optimally at 37 °C and pH 9. Further, strains KJ1-10-99T and KJ1-10-93 grew optimally at a NaCl concentration of 7.5 and 15 % (w/v), respectively. Both strains shared highest sequence similarity with Fermentibacillus polygoni IEB3T (96.90 %) followed by Bacillus nanhaiisediminis NH3T (96.3 %) and Bacillus alkalinitrilicus ANL-iso4T (96.3 %). The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C17:0, C16 : 0, and iso-C15 : 0. The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylglycerol in both strains. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was MK-7 in both the strains. The peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid (meso-DAP) as the diagnostic diamino acid. The DNA G+C content of strains KJ1-10-99T and KJ1-10-93 were 48.7 and 48.9 mol% respectively. Both strains could be distinguished from closest phylogenetic neighbours based on a number of phenotypic properties. On the basis of polyphasic taxonomic analysis and phylogenetic data, we conclude that the strains KJ1-10-99T (=LMG 29918T=KCTC 33878T) and KJ1-10-93 (=LMG 29919=KCTC 33877) represent a novel species of a new genus in the family Bacillaceae, order Bacillales, for which the name Desertibacillus haloalkaliphilus gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed.

Description of Alteribacillus alkaliphilus sp. nov., reassignment of Bacillus iranensis (Bagheri et al. 2012) as Alteribacillus iranensis comb. nov. and emended description of the genus Alteribacillus.

A novel Gram-stain-positive, aerobic, endospore-forming, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterium (strain JC229T) was isolated from a water sample collected from waterlogged alkaline soil. Strain JC229T was oxidase- and catalase-positive. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain JC229T was identified as belonging to the genus Alteribacillus of the phylum Firmicutes and was found to be most closely related to Alteribacillus bidgolensis P4BT (97.9 % similarity), Bacillus iranensis X5BT (97.2 %) and Alteribacillus persepolensis HS136T (96.6 %), and more distantly related to other members of the genus Bacillus (<95.2 %). Strain JC229T was further identified to be distinctly related to the type strains of A. bidgolensis and B. iranensis (<26 % based on DNA-DNA hybridization and ΔTm of >5 °C). Strain JC229T grew optimally at pH 8 (range 5-11), at 35-40 °C (range 20-50 °C) and at a salinity of 3-5 % (range 0.5-24 %). The DNA G+C content was 40.2 mol%. Major cellular fatty acids of strain JC229T were anteiso-C15 : 0, iso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C17 : 0 and iso-C16 : 0. The peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. The predominant quinone system was menaquinone 7. Polar lipids of strain JC229T included diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and two unidentified lipids. On the basis of morphological, physiological, genetic, phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic analyses, strain JC229T should be assigned to a novel species of the genus Alteribacillus, for which the name Alteribacillus alkaliphilus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is JC229T (=LMG 28999T=KCTC 33726T). It is also suggested to transfer B. iranensis to the genus Alteribacillus as Alteribacillus iranensis comb. nov.