Salirhabdus euzebyi gen. nov., sp nov., a Gram-positive, halotolerant bacterium isolated from a sea salt evaporation pond

A low-G+C, Gram-positive bacterium, designated CVS-14(T) was recovered from a sea salt evaporation pond on the island of Sal in the Cape Verde Archipelago. This organism was catalase- and oxidase-positive. Cells were motile, spore-forming aerobic rods, with an optimum growth temperature of about 35-40 degrees C and optimum pH between 7.0 and 8.5. Optimal growth occurred in media containing 4-6% (w/v) NaCl, although the organism was able to grow in medium without added NaCl and in medium containing 16% NaCl. The cell-wall peptidoglycan was of A1 gamma type and the major respiratory quinone was menaquinone 7 (MK-7). Major fatty acids were iso-15:0, anteiso-15:0, iso-17:0 and anteiso-17:0. The DNA G+C content was 37.0 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain CVS-14(T) formed a distinct new branch within the radiation of the moderately halophilic bacilli group, forming a separate lineage from species of the genera Salinibacillus, Paucisalibacillus, Oceanobacillus, Lentibacillus and Virgibacillus. Strain CVS-14(T) showed 16S rRNA gene pairwise similarity values of similar to 95% with species of the genus Salinibacillus. On the basis of morphological, physiological, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic characteristics, strain CVS-14(T) is considered to represent a novel species in a new genus, for which the name Salirhabdus euzebyi gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CVS-14(T) (=LMG 22839(T)=CIP 108577(T)).