Two alkaliphilic and halotolerant Gram-stain positive, rod-shaped and endospore-forming bacteria, designated strains 12-3(T) and 12-4, were isolated from saline and alkaline soils collected in Lindian county, Heilongjiang province, China. Both strains were observed to grow well at a wide range of temperature and pH values, 10-45 °C and pH 8-12, with optimal growth at 37 °C and pH 9.0, respectively. Growth of the two strains was found to occur at total salt concentrations of 0-12 % (w/v), with an optimum at 4 % (w/v). The G+C contents of the genomic DNA of strains 12-3(T) and 12-4 were determined to be 42.7 and 42.4 mol%, respectively, and the major cellular fatty acids were identified as anteiso-C15:0 and anteiso-C17:0. In isolate 12-3(T), meso-diaminopimelic acid was found to be the diagnostic diamino acid of the cell wall peptidoglycan; diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol were identified as the major cellular polar lipids; and menaquinone-7 was identified as the predominant isoprenoid quinone. Strains 12-3(T) and 12-4 share very close 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (99.74 %) and their DNA-DNA relatedness was 95.3 ± 0.63 %, meaning that the two strains can be considered to belong to the same species. 16S rRNA gene sequence-based phylogenetic analysis revealed strains 12-3(T) and 12-4 exhibit high similarities to Bacillus pseudofirmus DSM 8715(T) (98.7 %), Bacillus marmarensis DSM 21297(T) (97.2 %) and Bacillus nanhaiisediminis CGMCC 1.10116(T) (97.1 and 97.0 %, respectively). DNA-DNA hybridization values between isolate 12-3(T) and the type strains of closely related Bacillus species were below 30 %. On the basis of the polyphasic evidence presented, strains 12-3(T) and 12-4 are considered to represent a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus lindianensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 12-3(T) (DSM 26864(T) = CGMCC 1.12717(T)).
Keywords: Alkaliphilic; Bacillus lindianensis sp. nov.; Lindian county; Polyphasic taxonomy; Saline and alkaline soil.