A Gram-positive, moderately halophilic, endospore-forming, catalase- and oxidase-positive, motile, rod-shaped, aerobic bacterium, designated strain JSM 089168T, was isolated from saline soil collected from Naozhou Island, Leizhou Bay, South China Sea. The organism was able to grow with 2–25% (w/v) total salts (optimum, 5–10%), at pH 6.0–10.0 (optimum, pH 8.0) and 10–45°C (optimum, 30°C). meso-Diaminopimelic acid was present in the cell-wall peptidoglycan. The strain contained MK-7 as the predominant menaquinone, and diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylglycerol as the major polar lipids. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C15:0, iso-C15:0 and anteiso-C17:0, and the DNA G + C content was 40.2 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons revealed that strain JSM 089168T should be assigned to the genus Virgibacillus, being related most closely to the type strains of Virgibacillus carmonensis (sequence similarity 97.6%), Virgibacillus necropolis (97.3%) and Virgibacillus halodenitrificans (97.1%). Levels of DNA–DNA relatedness between strain JSM 089168T and the type strains of V. carmonensis, V. necropolis and V. halodenitrificans were 20.4, 14.3 and 12.0%, respectively. The combination of phylogenetic analysis, DNA–DNA relatedness, phenotypic characteristics and chemotaxonomic data supported the view that strain JSM 089168T represents a novel species of the genus Virgibacillus, for which the name Virgibacillus litoralis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is JSM 089168T (=DSM 21085T =KCTC 13228T).
