Salipaludibacillus keqinensis sp. nov., a moderately halophilic bacterium isolated from a saline–alkaline lake

A novel Gram-stain positive, short rod, forming sub-terminal endospores of ellipsoidal shape, halophilic, alkaliphilic and aerobic bacterium, designated strain KQ-12T, was isolated from a saline–alkaline lake in China, and characterised by a polyphasic taxonomic approach. The isolate grew at 4–40 °C (optimum, 25 °C), at pH 8.0–10.0 (pH 9.0) and in the presence of 0–16% (w/v) NaCl (8%). 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of KQ-12T to species in the genera Salipaludibacillus ranged from 96.6 to 98.1%. Phylogenetic trees indicated that the strain should be assigned to the genus Salipaludibacillus. The polar lipids of KQ-12T were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, and an unidentified phospholipid and its major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C15:0, anteiso-C17:0, iso-C15:0, and C16:0. The isoprenoid quinone was MK-7. These key chemotaxonomic properties also confirmed the affiliation of the strain to the genus Salipaludibacillus. However, some physiological, biochemical properties, low average nucleotide identity and low digital DNA–DNA hybridization relatedness values enabled the strain to be differentiated from closely related species of the genus Salipaludibacillus. Thus, KQ-12T can be classified as a novel species in the genus Salipaludibacillus, for which the name Salipaludibacillus keqinensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is KQ-12T ( = ACCC 60430T = KCTC 33935T).