Lentibacillus persicus sp. nov., a moderately halophilic species isolated from a saline lake

A Gram-staining-positive, moderately halophilic bacterium, designated strain Amb31(T), was isolated from water of the hypersaline lake Aran-Bidgol in Iran and characterized taxonomically using a polyphasic approach. Cells were rods, motile and able to produce ellipsoidal endospores at a central position in swollen sporangia. Strain Amb31(T) was facultatively anaerobic and catalase- and oxidase-positive. The strain grew in a complex medium supplemented with 3-25 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum 7.5-10 %). Optimal growth was at 30-35 degrees C and pH 7.5. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons showed that strain Amb31(T) belonged to the genus Lentibacillus; it exhibited 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values of 96.8 and 96.4 % to Lentibacillus salicampi SF-20(T) and Lentibacillus salinarum AHS-1(T), respectively, and values of 95.9-94.7 % to the type strains of other recognized species of Lentibacillus. The cell-wall peptidoglycan of strain Amb31(T) was based on meso-diaminopimelic acid and MK-7 was the respiratory isoprenoid quinone. The major fatty acids were anteiso-C(15 : 0) (44.7 %), iso-C(16 : 0) (21.4 %) and anteiso-C(17 : 0) (15.9 %) and the polar lipid pattern consisted of phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, five phospholipids and a glycolipid. The DNA G+C content was 44.1 mol%. All these features confirmed the placement of strain Amb31(T) within the genus Lentibacillus and the strain could be clearly differentiated from strains of the other species of Lentibacillus on the basis of several phenotypic, genotypic and chemotaxonomic features. DNA-DNA relatedness with the type strain of the most closely related strain, L. salicampi DSM 16425(T), was 28 %. Therefore, strain Amb31(T) represents a novel species of the genus Lentibacillus, for which the name Lentibacillus persicus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Amb31(T) (=CCM 7683(T) =CECT 7524(T) =DSM 22530(T) =LMG 25304(T)).