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Bacillus horneckiae sp. nov., isolated from a clean room where the Phoenix spacecraft was assembled

¹ Jet Propulsion Laboratory;
² Microbial Type Culture Collection & Gene Bank (MTCC);
³ California Institute of Technology

⁴ E-mail: kjvenkat{at}jpl.nasa.gov

Five Gram-positive, motile, aerobic strains were isolated from a clean room of the Kennedy Space Center where the Phoenix spacecraft was assembled. All strains are rod-shaped, spore-forming bacteria, whose spores were resistant to UV radiation up to 1000 J/m2. The spores are sub-terminally poised and produce an external layer. A polyphasic taxonomic study including traditional biochemical tests, fatty acid analysis, cell wall typing, lipid analyses, 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and DNA-DNA hybridization studies was performed to characterize these novel strains. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing and lipid analyses convincingly grouped these novel strains within the genus Bacillus as a separate cluster from already described species. The similarity of 16S rRNA gene sequences among the novel strains was >99% but only ~97% with their nearest neighbors Bacillus pocheonensis, Bacillus firmus, and Bacillus bataviensis. The DNA-DNA hybridization dissociation value was <24% to the closest related species. The novel strains had a G+C content 35.6±0.5 mol% and could liquefy gelatin but did not utilize or produce acids from all the carbon substrates tested. The major fatty acids were iso C15:0 and anteiso-C15:0 and the cell wall type was meso-DAP. Based on phylogenetic and phenotypic results it is concluded that these strains represent a new species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus horneckiae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 1P01SCT (=NRRL B-59162T =MTCC 9535T).