Virgibacillus ainsalahensis sp. nov., a Moderately Halophilic Bacterium Isolated from Sediment of a Saline Lake in South of Algeria Meriam Amziane 1 • Amel Darenfed-Bouanane 1 • Ahmed Abderrahmani 1 • Okba Selama 1 • Lydia Jouadi 1 • Jean-Luc Cayol 2 • Farida Nateche 1 • Marie-Laure Fardeau 2 Received: 24 June 2016 / Accepted: 25 November 2016 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 Abstract A Gram-positive, moderately halophilic, endo- spore-forming bacterium, designated MerV T , was isolated from a sediment sample of a saline lake located in Ain Salah, south of Algeria. The cells were rod shaped and motile. Isolate MerV T grew at salinity interval of 0.5–25% NaCl (optimum, 5–10%), pH 6.0–12.0 (optimum, 8.0), and temperature between 10 and 40 °C (optimum, 30 °C).The polar lipids comprised diphosphatidylglycerol, phos- phatidylglycerol, a glycolipid, a phospholipid, and two lipids, and MK-7 is the predominant menaquinone. The predominant cellular fatty acids were anteiso C 15:0 and anteiso C 17:0 . The DNA G?C content was 45.3 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons revealed that strain MerV T was most closely related to Virgibacillus halodenitrificans (gene sequence similarity of 97.0%). On the basis of phenotypic, chemo- taxonomic properties, and phylogenetic analyses, strain MerV T (=DSM = 28944 T ) should be placed in the genus Virgibacillus as a novel species, for which the name Virgibacillus ainsalahensis is proposed. Introduction Hypersaline habitats constitute a typical example of extreme environments in which relatively low microbial species diversity can be found. The microorganisms living in these biotopes can subsist beyond the range of salt concentrations found in natural habitats. According to their relationship to NaCl, they can be classified into halotoler- ant, slightly halophiles, moderately halophile, and extre- mely halophile. Moderately halophilic bacteria represent a very heterogeneous group of micro-organisms that can grow optimally in media containing 3–15% of salt con- centration [18]. One of these groups is represented by the Gram-positive, aerobic, endospore-forming bacteria which were originally placed in the genus Bacillus [8], however, on the basis of phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic analy- ses; they have been placed in separate genera such as Halobacillus [28], Virgibacillus [14], Filobacillus [24], Thalassobacillus [11]. In the course of studying diversity of endospore-forming bacteria in Algerian Sahara salt lake, a moderately halo- philic bacterium, designated strain MerV T , was described. Based on the results of phylogenetic investigations and phenotypic properties, this strain is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Virgibacillus. Materials and Methods Preparation of Media, Isolation, and Characterization Strain MerV T was isolated from a sample of surface sedi- ment obtained from salt lake located in Ain Salah south of Algeria (27° 11 0 30, 40 00 N2° 27 0 12, 00 00 E). The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJaccesDDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA genes sequence of strain T is KF146340. & Marie-Laure Fardeau marie-laure.fardeau@univ-amu.fr 1 Microbiology Group, Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biology, USTHB, BP 32, El Alia, Bab Ezzouar, Algiers, Algeria 2 Aix Marseille Universite ´, IRD, Universite ´ de Toulon, CNRS, Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO), UM 110, Case 925, 163 Avenue de Luminy, 13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France 123 Curr Microbiol DOI 10.1007/s00284-016-1171-0