A novel Gram-staining-positive, endospore-forming, rod-shaped, facultatively anaerobic, thermotolerant bacterium, designated strain MO-04(T), was isolated from a marine animal resources (MAR) compost. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain MO-04(T) showed 99.4% similarity with Bacillus thermolactis R-6488(T), 94.1% similarity with Bacillus thermoamylovorans CNCM I-1378(T), 93.3% similarity with Bacillus humi LMG 22167(T), 93.2% similarity with Bacillus niacini IFO 15566(T) and the similarities with other species were less than 93%. DNA-DNA relatedness between strain MO-04(T) and B. thermolactis DSM 23332(T) was 45%. The DNA G+C content of strain MO-04(T) was 33.4 mol%, comparatively lower than that of B. thermolactis R-6488(T) (35.0 mol%). Strain MO-04(T) grew at 35-61 °C (optimum 50 °C), pH 4.5-9.0 (optimum pH 7.2) and tolerated up to 8.0% (w/v) NaCl (optimum 2%). The MO-04(T) cell wall peptidoglycan type was meso-2,6-diaminopimelic acid, and the major fatty acids were C(16 : 1), C(14 : 1), C(17 : 0) and C(17 : 1). The major polar lipids were represented by diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylglycerol and two unidentified phospholipids. The analysed polyphasic data presented here clearly indicate that the isolate MO-04(T) is considered to represent a novel species within the genus Bacillus for which the name Bacillus kokeshiiformis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of B. kokeshiiformis is MO-04(T) ( = JCM 19325(T) = KCTC 33163(T)).
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