A novel Gram-stain-positive, slightly halophilic, facultatively alkaliphilic, catalase-positive, oxidasenegative, endospore-forming, motile, rod-shaped, aerobic bacterium, designated strain JSM 082006 T , was isolated from an oyster collected from Naozhou Island in the South China Sea. The isolate grew in 0-18 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0.5-4.0 %), at pH 6.0-10.5 (optimum, pH 8.0) and at 15-45 6C (optimum, 30 6C). meso-Diaminopimelic acid was present in the cell-wall peptidoglycan. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C 15 : 0 , iso-C 15 : 0 and C 16 : 0 . Strain JSM 082006T contained MK-7 as the predominant respiratory quinone and diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine as the major polar lipids. The genomic DNA G+C content was 40.2 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons revealed that strain JSM 082006 T should be assigned to the genus Bacillus and that it was most closely related to the type strains of Bacillus barbaricus (sequence similarity 99.1 %) and Bacillus arsenicus (97.5 %), followed by those of Bacillus rigui (96.6 %) and Bacillus solisalsi (96.1 %). Phylogenetic analysis, DNA-DNA relatedness values, phenotypic characteristics and chemotaxonomic data support the view that strain JSM 082006 T represents a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus nanhaiensis sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain is JSM 082006 T (5DSM 23009 T 5KCTC 13712 T ).Halophilic, halotolerant, alkaliphilic and/or alkalitolerant species of the genus Bacillus are widely distributed throughout various types of saline environments (Ash et al., 1991;Nielsen et al., 1994;Ventosa et al., 1998;Arahal & Ventosa, 2002;Romano et al., 2005; Lim et al., 2006a, b;Carrasco et al., 2007;Yumoto, 2007;Aino et al., 2008;Chen et al., 2009e;Liu et al., 2009) and these bacteria have attracted increasing interest, attributable to their ability to grow under extreme conditions as well as to the potential use of their enzymes in biotechnological applications (Horikoshi, 1999;Margesin & Schinner, 2001;Nogi et al., 2005;Krulwich et al., 2007). During an investigation of the diversity of the microbial population of invertebrates inhabiting the South China Sea (Chen et al., 2009a, b, c, d, e; Huang et al., 2009; Xiao et al., 2009), a slightly halophilic, facultatively alkaliphilic, endospore-forming, Gram-stain-positive bacterium, designated strain JSM 082006 T , was isolated from an oyster collected from Naozhou Island, China. Data from the present taxonomic study indicate that this strain represents a novel species of the genus Bacillus.
Strain JSM 082006T was isolated from homogenates of an oyster by plating 1 : 10 serial dilutions of the sample on marine agar 2216 (MA; Difco) cultivated at 30 uC for 2 weeks. After primary isolation, the strain was purified by repeated streaking and subculturing on nutrient agar (NA; Atlas, 1993) plates (4-5 times) and examining the cultures by light microscopy. The isolate was preserved both on NA slants at 4 u C and as 20 % (v/...