Bacillus mangrovi sp nov., isolated from a sediment sample from a mangrove forest

A facultatively anaerobic, endospore forming, alkali-tolerant, Gram-stain-positive, motile, rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain AK61(T), was isolated from a sediment sample collected from Coringa mangrove forest, India. Colonies were circular, 1.5mm in diameter, shiny, smooth, yellowish and convex with entire margins after 48 h growth at 30 degrees C. Growth occurred at 15-42 degrees C, with 0-3% (w/v) NaCl and at pH 6-9. AK61(T) was positive for amylase activity and negative for oxidase, catalase, aesculinase, caseinase, cellulase, DNase, gelatinase, lipase and urease activities. The fatty acids were dominated by branched types with iso- and anteiso-saturated fatty acids with a high abundance of iso-C-14:0, iso-C-15:0, anteiso-C-15:0 and iso-C-16:0; the cell-wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid; and MK-7 was the major menaquinone. DNA-DNA hybridization between AK61(T) and Bacillus indicus MTCC 4374(T) and between AK61(T) and Bacillus indicus KCTC 3880 showed relatedness of 37.99 and 33.32% respectively. The DNA G+C content of AK61(T) was 44 mol%. The results of a BLAST sequence similarity search based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that Bacillus cibi and Bacillus indicus were the nearest phylogenetic neighbours, with a pair-wise sequence similarity of 97.69 and 97.55% respectively. The results of phylogenetic analysis indicated that AK61(T) was clustered with Bacillus idriensis and Bacillus indicus. On the basis of its phenotypic characteristics and phylogenetic inference, AK61(T) represents a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus mangrovi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is AK61(T) (=JCM 31087(T) =MTCC 12015(T) =KCTC 33872(T)).