Virgibacillus albus sp. nov., a novel moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from Lop Nur salt lake in Xinjiang province, China

A Gram-positive, moderately halophilic, strictly aerobic bacterium, designated YIM 93624^T, was isolated from a salt lake in Xinjiang province of China and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. Strain YIM 93624^T grew at 15–45 °C (optimum 25–30 °C), 1–17% (w/v) NaCl (optimum 5–10 %, w/v) and pH 4.0–9.0 (optimum pH 7.0). The predominant menaquinone was found to be MK-7. The major fatty acids were anteiso-C_15:0 and C_16:0. The polar lipids consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, a glycolipid and two unidentified phospholipids. The cell-wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 37.9 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain YIM 93624^T was a member of the genus Virgibacillus and exhibited the highest similarity of 97.0 % to Virgibacillus koreensis KCTC 3823^T. However, the level of DNA–DNA relatedness between strain YIM 93624^T and V. koreensis KCTC 3823^T was 32.5 %. On the basis of phylogenetic, physiological and chemotaxonomic analysis data, the isolate is concluded to represent a novel species of the genus Virgibacillus, for which the name Virgibacillus albus sp. nov., is proposed, with type strain of YIM 93624^T (=DSM 23711^T = JCM 17364^T).