Identification of "Bacillus cellulasensis" strain NIO-1130(T) as a member of Bacillus altitudinis and emendation of the latter

In the study by Mawlankar et al. in Arch Microbiol 198:83-89 (2016), the phylogenetic position of strain "Bacillus cellulasensis" NIO-1130(T) based on 16S rRNA and gyrB genes was inconsistent. Therefore, the aim of this study is to re-determine its taxonomic status using diverse genotypic approaches including single gene analysis, multilocus sequence analysis, and genomic analyses. The reconstructed phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene and six concatenated genes showed that "B. cellulasensis" NIO-1130(T) (=NCIM 5461(T) = CCTCC AB 2011126(T)) revealed the closest genetic relationship with type strain Bacillus altitudinis 41KF2b(T), with 98.6-100 % similarities of 16S rRNA gene, gyrB, pycA, pyrE, mutL, aroE, trpB, and six concatenated housekeeping genes. The high similarities for gene(s) sequences between "B. cellulasensis" NIO-1130(T) and B. altitudinis 41KF2b(T) indicated that they should be conspecific. The DNA G+C content for strain NIO-1130(T) was determined to be 41.3 mol% and identical to that of B. altitudinis 41KF2b(T). Moreover, 88.4 % of digital DNA-DNA hybridization and 98.7 % of average nucleotide identity values between two strains were much higher than the standard criteria for delineation of bacterial species, suggesting that they belonged to the same species. Therefore, the data from the combined genotypic analyses suggest that "Bacillus cellulasensis" should be classified as a member of Bacillus altitudinis.