Oceanobacillus longus sp. nov., a moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from a salt lake

A Gram-stain-positive, endospore-forming, long rod-shaped, strictly aerobic, moderately halophilic bacterium, designated strain T9BT, was isolated from a brine sample of the hypersaline lake Aran-Bidgol in Iran. Cells of strain T9BT were motile and produced colonies with a brown pigment. Growth occurred between 1.0 and 20 % (w/v) NaCl and the isolate grew optimally at 5.0 % (v/w) NaCl. The optimum pH and temperature for growth of the strain were pH 7.0 and 35 °C, while it was able to grow over pH and temperature ranges of pH 6.0-9.0 and 25-45 °C. Phylogenetic analysis based on the comparison of 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain T9BT is a member of the genus Oceanobacillus. The closest relative to this strain was Oceanobacillus rekensis PT-11T with a similarity of 97.4 %, followed by Oceanobacillus profundus CL-MP28T and Oceanobacillus polygoni SA9T with 97.3 and 97.1 % similarity, respectively. The major cellular fatty acids of the isolate were anteiso-C15 : 0, iso-C14 : 0 and iso-C16 : 0. The polar lipids of strain T9BT consisted of phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, three phospholipids and one aminoglycolipid. It contained MK-7 as the predominant menaquinone and meso-diaminopimelic acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan. The G+C content of the genomic DNA of this strain was 42.9 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis, DNA-DNA hybridization data and phenotypic characteristics allowed strain T9BT to be differentiated from other members of the genus Oceanobacillus. A novel species, Oceanobacillus longus sp. nov., is therefore proposed to accommodate this strain. The type strain is T9BT (=IBRC-M 10703T=LMG 29250T).