Halalkalibacillus halophilus gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel moderately halophilic and alkaliphilic bacterium isolated from a non-saline soil sample in Japan

A moderately halophilic and alkaliphilic bacterium, designated strain BH2^T, was isolated from non-saline garden soil in Saitama, Japan. Cells of strain BH2^T were motile, aerobic, rod-shaped and Gram-positive and contained A1γ, meso-diaminopimelic acid-type murein. Growth occurred in 5.025 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 1015 %, w/v), at pH 5.510.0 (optimum, pH 8.59.0) and at 2040 °C. The predominant isoprenoid quinone was menaquinone-7. The major cellular fatty acids were ai-C_{15 : 0}, i-C_{16 : 0}, ai-C_{17 : 0} and i-C_{15 : 0}. The G+C content of the total DNA of strain BH2^T was 35.1±0.4 mol% (±SD; n=5). The phylogenetic distance from species with validly published names was less than 94.1 %. The phylogenetic and phenotypic characteristics indicated that strain BH2^T represents a novel genus and species, for which the name Halalkalibacillus halophilus gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is BH2^T (=JCM 14192^T=DSM 18494^T).