Melghiribacillus thermohalophilus gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel filamentous, endospore-forming, thermophilic and halophilic bacterium

A novel filamentous, endospore-forming, thermophilic and moderately halophilic bacterium designated strain Nari2AT was isolated from soil collected from an Algerian salt lake, Chott Melghir. The novel isolate was Gram-staining-positive, aerobic, catalase-negative and oxidase-positive. Optimum growth occurred at 50–55 °C, 7–10 % (w/v) NaCl and pH 7–8. The strain exhibited 95.4, 95.4 and 95.2 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Thalassobacillus devorans G19.1T, Sediminibacillus halophilus EN8dT and Virgibacillus kekensis YIM-kkny16T, respectively. The major menaquinone was MK-7. The polar lipid profile consisted of phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, three unknown phosphoglycolipids and two unknown phospholipids. The predominant cellular fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0 and iso-C17 : 0. The DNA G+C content was 41.9 mol%. Based on the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data, strain Nari2AT is considered to represent a novel species of a new genus in the family Bacillaceae , order Bacillales , for which the name Melghiribacillus thermohalophilus gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Melghiribacillus thermohalophilus is Nari2AT ( = DSM 25894T = CCUG 62543T).