Bacillus acanthi sp nov., isolated from the rhizosphere soil of a mangrove plant Acanthus ilicifolius

A novel bacterium, designated strain L28(T), was isolated from the rhizosphere soil of a mangrove plant in Hong Kong. Cells of strain L28(T) are Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped and endospore-forming. Optimum growth occurs at 37 degrees C (range, 20-45 degrees C), 0.5% (w/v) NaCl (range, 0-5.0 %) and pH 7.5 (range, 6.5-9.0). The major fatty acids are iso-C-15 : 0 and C-16 : 1 omega 7c alcohol. The major respiratory quinone is MK-7. The polar lipid profile comprises phospholipid, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, diphosphatidylglycerol and two unidentified lipids. The 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses indicated that strain L28(T) exhibited the highest similarity of 96.7% to Bacillus asahii MA001(T). The genome size of strain L28(T) was 4 063 863 bp with a 36.9 mol% DNA G+C content. Based on the phenotypic and chemotaxonomic properties, along with the phylogenic distinctiveness, it was concluded that this strain represents a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus acanthi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of this novel species is L28(T) (= DSM 104296(T) = MCCC 1K03287(T)).