Virgibacillus natechei sp. nov., A Moderately Halophilic Bacterium Isolated from Sediment of a Saline Lake in Southwest of Algeria

A novel, Gram-positive, moderately halophilic bacterium, oxidase- and catalase-positive designated FarDT was isolated from sediments of a saline lake located in Taghit, 93 km from Bechar, southwest of Algeria. Cells were rod-shaped, endospore forming, and motile. Growth occurred at 15–40 °C (optimum, 35 °C), pH 6.0–12.0 (optimum, 7.0) and in the presence of 1–20 % NaCl (optimum, 10 %). Strain FarDT used glucose, mannitol, melibiose, d-mannose, and 5 ketogluconate. The polar lipids comprised diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, and three phospholipids; MK-7 is the predominant menaquinone. The predominant cellular fatty acids were anteiso C15:0, anteiso C17:0, C20:0, and anteiso C19:0. The DNA G+C content was 42.1 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis of the small-subunit ribosomal RNA gene sequence indicated that strain FarDT had as its closest relative Virgibacillus salinus (similarity of 96.3 %). Based on phenotypic, phylogenetic, and taxonomic characteristics, strain FarDT is proposed as a novel species of the genus Virgibacillus within the order Clostridiales, for which the name V. natechei is proposed. The type strain is FarDT (=DSM 25609T = CCUG 62224T).