Taxonomic Study of Moderately Halophilic Gram-positive Endospore-forming Rods

Summary A taxonomic study has been carried out with 24 strains of moderately halophilic endospore-forming rods and 12 related Bacillus species. Phenotypic characteristics were analyzed by numerical taxonomy. Using S sm and unweighted pair group method of association (UPGMA), two phenons were obtained at 67.6% of similarity level. Guanine plus cytosine (G + C) content ranged from 38.9 to 45.0 (mol%) in phenon A and from 35.0 to 47.0 (mol%) in phenon B. The results of DNA-DNA hybridization among the isolates of phenon A show them to be quite heterogeneous. Members belonging to phenon B are genetically more homogeneous. On the other hand, strains are genetically and phenotypically unrelated with Bacillus species with similar G+C contents. These results suggest that both groups could constitute new taxa of the genus Bacillus .