A Gram-stain-positive, non-motile, rod-shaped, facultatively anaerobic bacterium, designated as IB182487T, was isolated from a seashore sand sample collected from Zhaoshu Island, PR China. Strain IB182487T grew at pH 6.0-10.0 (optimum, pH 8.0), 4-45 °C (optimum, 25-30 °C) and with 0-17 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 2-10 %). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain IB182487T belonged to the genus Metabacillus and was closely related to Metabacillus idriensis SMC 4352-2T, (96.6 %), Metabacillus indicus LMG 22858T (96.5 %), Metabacillus niabensis DSM 17723T (96.3 %) and Metabacillus halosaccharovorans DSM 25387T (96.1 %). Strain IB182487T had meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan and contained menaquinone MK-7 as the predominant isoprenoid quinone. Its polar lipids consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified phospholipids and three unidentified glycolipids. The major cellular fatty acids of strain IB182487T were iso-C15 : 0 and anteiso-C15 : 0. The whole genome average nucleotide identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization analysis between the isolate and its closely related type strains demonstrated that the strain significantly differed from other Metabacillus species. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain IB182487T was 37.4 mol%. On the basis of phenotypic and chemotaxonomic properties, phylogenetic relatedness as well as genomic characteristics, strain IB182487T represents a novel species of the genus Metabacillus, for which the name Metabacillus arenae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of M. arenae is IB182487T (=MCCC 1K04629T=JCM 34523T).
Keywords: 16S rRNA gene; Metabacillus arenae sp. nov; polyphasic taxonomy.