Proposal for transfer of Pelagibacillus goriensis Kim et al. 2007 to the genus Terribacillus as Terribacillus goriensis comb. nov.

The phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and genotypic characteristics of two recently described genera were compared. Terribacillus saccharophilus and Pelagibacillus goriensis (both type species of their respective genera) are similar in many phenotypic characteristics and in their fatty acid profiles, both have MK-7 as the major menaquinone and they have similar G+C contents. Comparison of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of P. goriensis CL-GR16(T) with those of T. saccharophilus 002-048(T) and Terribacillus halophilus 002-051(T) showed high degrees of sequence similarity, respectively 99.8 and 98.9 %. Phylogenetically, these three taxa are closely related and form a coherent cluster in the phylogenetic tree. The genomic relatedness of P. goriensis DSM 18252(T) with T. saccharophilus JCM 21759(T) and T. halophilus JCM 21760(T) is 51.7 and 35.6 %, respectively, which is well below the value of 70 % recommended for delineation of species. P. goriensis differs from T. saccharophilus in motility, the Voges-Proskauer test and acid production from and utilization of some carbohydrates. Based on these analyses, we conclude that Pelagibacillus should not be considered a separate genus and hence Pelagibacillus goriensis should be transferred to the genus Terribacillus as Terribacillus goriensis comb. nov., with the type strain CL-GR16(T) (=KCCM 42329(T) =DSM 18252(T)).