A novel aerobic, Gram-stain-positive, sporogenous, rod-shaped bacterium, designated LAM0415(T), was isolated from an alcohol fermentation pit mud sample collected from Sichuan Luzhou-flavour liquor enterprise in China. The isolate was found to be able to grow at NaCl concentrations of 0-10 % (w/v) (optimum: 1.0 %), 10-50 °C (optimum: 30-35 °C) and pH 3.0-10.0 (optimum: 7.0-8.0). Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that the new isolate belonged to the genus Bacillus and was closely related to Bacillus sporothermodurans DSM 10599(T) and Bacillus oleronius DSM 9356(T), with 98.4 and 97.2 % sequence similarity, respectively. The DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain LAM0415(T) and the two reference strains were 33.3 ± 1.2 and 42.8 ± 0.8 %, respectively. The genomic DNA G+C content was 35.2 mol% as determined by the T m method. The major fatty acids were determined to be iso-C15:0, anteiso-C15:0 and anteiso-C17:0. The predominant menaquinones were identified as MK7 and MK8. The major polar lipids were found to be diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified phospholipid and four unidentified glycolipids. The diagnostic amino acid of the cell wall peptidoglycan was determined to be meso-diaminopimelic acid. On the basis of its phenotypic, phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, strain LAM0415(T) (=ACCC 06413(T) = JCM 19841(T)) represents the type strain of a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus vini sp. nov. is proposed.
Keywords: 16S rRNA gene; Alcohol fermentation; Bacillus vini sp. nov.; Pit mud; Polyphasic taxonomy.