Bacillus chagannoriensis sp. nov., a moderate halophile from a soda lake in Inner Mongolia, China

A Gram-positive, moderately halophilic, sporeforming bacterium, designated strain CG15T, was isolated from the soda Lake Chagannor in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. The cells of this strain were motile short rods, with ellipsoidal, terminal and deforming endospores. Strain CG15T, a facultatively anaerobic bacterium, grew between pH 5.75 and 11.0 (optimal growth at pH 8.5), between 6-40ºC (optimal growth at 37ºC) and at salinities of 3-20% (w/v) total salts, growing optimally at 7% (w/v) salts. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain CG15T was shown to belong to the genus Bacillus within the phylum Firmicutes; based on the comparison of the 16S rRNA gene sequences, it showed the closest phylogenetic similarity with the species Bacillus saliphilus (96.0%). The DNA G+C content of this new isolate is 53.8 mol%. The major cellular fatty acids of strain CG15T were anteiso-C15:0, iso-C15:0 and anteiso-C17:0, and its polar lipid pattern consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and three different unidentified phospholipids. The analysis of the quinones showed that MK-7 was the major menaquinone. The peptidoglycan type is A1γ, with meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid. On the basis of polyphasic evidence from this study, a new species of the genus Bacillus, Bacillus chagannoriensis sp. nov. is proposed, with strain CG15T (=DSM 18086T =CCM XXXT = AS XXXT = CECT XXXT) as the type strain.