Pontibacillus salicampi sp. Nov., a moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from saltern soil

A Gram-stain-positive, moderately halophilic bacterium, designated BH043^T, was isolated from saltern soil of Gomso in Korea. Cells were motile rods, producing ellipsoidal endospores at a terminal position in swollen sporangia. Strain BH043^T was strictly aerobic, grew at pH 6.0–10.0 (optimal growth at pH 7.5), at 10–55 6C (optimal growth at 30 6C) and at salinities of 1–20% (w/v) NaCl, growing optimally with 7% (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain BH043^T belongs to the family Bacillaceae and was most closely related to the type strains of the five recognized species of the genus Pontibacillus, showing sequence similarity to Pontibacillus yanchengensis Y32^T (97.5% similarity), Pontibacillus marinus BH030004^T (97.4%), Pontibacillus chungwhensis BH030062^T (97.0%), Pontibacillus litoralis JSM 072002^T (96.4%) and Pontibacillus halophilus JSM 076056^T(96.2%). The major cellular fatty acids of strain BH043^T were iso-C_15:0 and anteiso-C_15:0. The genomic DNA G+C content was 42.5 mol%. The major isoprenoid quinone was MK-7 and meso-diaminopimelic acid was present in the cell-wall peptidoglycan as the diagnostic diamino acid. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol. DNA–DNA relatedness between strain BH043^T and the type strains of other species of the genus Pontibacillus, P. yanchengensis CGMCC 1.10680^T and P. marinus KCTC 3917^T and P. chungwhensis KCTC 3890^T, was 35, 24 and 18%, respectively. On the basis of polyphasic analysis from this study, strain BH043^T represents a novel species of the genus Pontibacillus for which the name Pontibacillus salicampi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is BH043^T (5KACC 17607^T5NBRC 109831^T5NCAIM B.02529^T).