Bacillus persepolensis sp. nov., a moderately halophilic bacterium from a hypersaline lake

A Gram-positive, moderately halophilic, endospore-forming bacterium, designated strain HS136T, was isolated from the hypersaline lake Howz-Soltan in Iran. Cells were motile rods, producing ellipsoidal endospores at a central-subterminal position in non-swollen sporangia. Strain HS136T, a strictly aerobic bacterium, grew between pH 7.0 and 10.0 (optimal growth at pH 8.0-8.5), between 25 and 45 degrees C (optimal growth at 40 degrees C) and at salinities of 5-20% (w/v) NaCl, growing optimally at 10% (w/v) NaCl. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain HS136T was shown to belong to the genus Bacillus within the phylum Firmicutes and showed closest phylogenetic similarity to Bacillus salarius BH169T (95.2%) and Bacillus qingdaonensis CM1T (94.5%). The DNA G+C content of this new isolate was 37.1 mol%. The major cellular fatty acids of strain HS136T were iso-C15:0, anteiso-C15:0 and anteiso-C17:0, and its polar lipid pattern consisted of phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol. The isoprenoid quinone was MK-7. The peptidoglycan type is A1gamma, with meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. On the basis of polyphasic evidence from this study, Bacillus persepolensis sp. nov. is proposed, with strain HS136T (=CCM 7595T=DSM 21632T=JCM 15720T=LMG 25222T) as the type strain.