Abstract

A Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped, alkalitolerant, and halophilic bacterium–designated as strain NKC3-5T–was isolated from kimchi that was collected from the Geumsan area in the Republic of Korea. Cells of isolated strain NKC3-5T were 0.5–0.7􍾘μm wide and 1.4–2.8 μm long. The strain NKC3-5T could grow at up to 20.0% (w/v) NaCl (optimum 10%), pH 6.5–10.0 (optimum pH 9.0), and 25–40°C (optimum 35°C). The cells were able to reduce nitrate under aerobic conditions, which is the first report in the genus Salicibibacter. The genome size and genomic G + C content of strain NKC3-5T were 3,754,174 bp and 45.9 mol%, respectively; it contained 3,630 coding sequences, 16S rRNA genes (six 16S, five 5S, and five 23S), and 59 tRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA showed that strain NKC- 3-5T clustered with bacterium Salicibibacter kimchii NKC1-1T, with a similarity of 96.2–97.6%, but formed a distinct branch with other published species of the family Bacillaceae. In addition, OrthoANI value between strain NKC3-5T and Salicibibacter kimchii NKC1-1T was far lower than the species demarcation threshold. Using functional genome annotation, the result found that carbohydrate, amino acid, and vitamin metabolism related genes were highly distributed in the genome of strain NKC3-5T. Comparative genomic analysis revealed that strain NKC3-5T had 716 pan-genome orthologous groups (POGs), dominated with carbohydrate metabolism. Phylogenomic analysis based on the concatenated core POGs revealed that strain NKC3-5T was closely related to Salicibibacter kimchii. The predominant polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol and two unidentified lipids. Anteiso- C15:0, iso-C17:0, anteiso-C17:0, and iso-C15:0 were the major cellular fatty acids, and menaquinone-7 was the major isoprenoid quinone present in strain NKC3-5T. Cell wall peptidoglycan analysis of strain NKC3-5T showed that meso-diaminopimelic acid was the diagnostic diamino acid. The phenotypic, genomic, phylogenetic, and chemotaxonomic properties reveal that the strain represents a novel species of the genus Salicibibacter, for which the name Salicibibacter halophilus sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain NKC3-5T (= KACC 21230T = JCM 33437T).

• Keywords: Salicibibacter halophilus; halophile; alkalitolerant; bacterium; kimchi; taxonomy