LAUSR

A bacterial strain, designated YIM 98839T, was isolated from the hypersaline sediment of Aiding Lake in Xinjiang province, North-West China. The strain was Gram-stain-positive, motile, aerobic, produced oval subterminal or central endospores in swollen sporangia. The whole-cell hydrolysates contain meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic cell-wall diamino acid. Galactose, fucose and ribose are the major whole-cell sugars. The phospholipids are diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and one unknown phospholipid. The predominant menaquinone is MK-7. The major fatty acids are anteiso-C15:0, anteiso-C17:0 and iso-C15:0. The DNA G + C content of the type strain is 37.0 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the isolate belongs to the genus Oceanobacillus. However, it differed from its closest relative, Oceanobacillus limi H9BT in many physiological characteristics. Moreover, the DNA–DNA relatedness values between the novel isolate and the relative type strain was 20.2%. Based on comparative analysis of polyphasic taxonomic data, strain YIM 98839T represents a novel species of the genus Oceanobacillus, for which the name Oceanobacillus halotolerans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM 98839T (= CGMCC 1.17002T  = KCTC 43140T).