Sporosarcina aquimarina sp nov., a bacterium isolated from seawater in Korea, and transfer of Bacillus globisporus (Larkin and Stokes 1967), Bacillus psychrophilus (Nakamura 1984) and Bacillus pasteurii (Chester 1898) to the genus Sporosarcina as Sporosarcina globispora comb. nov., Sporosarcina psychrophila comb. nov and Sporosarcina pasteurii comb. nov., and emended description of the genus Sporosarcina

A light-orange-coloured, facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped bacterium (strain SW28(T)), which was isolated from seawater in Korea, was taxonomically studied by a polyphasic approach. This organism formed round terminal endospores in swollen sporangia. The peptidoglycan type is A4 alpha, based on L-Lys-L-Ala-D-Asp. The predominant menaquinone is MK-7 and the major fatty acid is ante-C-15:0. The G+C content of the DNA is 40 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rDNA sequences showed that strain SW28(T) falls within the radiation of a cluster comprising the rRNA group 2 bacilli and non-Bacillus-type organisms. Strain SW28(T) showed the highest degree of relatedness to the type strain of Sporosarcina ureae, sharing 96.8 % 16S rDNA similarity. Levels of DNA-DNA relatedness between strain SW28(T) and S. ureae DSM 2281(T) and the type strains of some Bacillus species forming a coherent phylogenetic cluster are less than 12.5 %. On the basis of phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, 16S rDNA sequence analysis and DNA-DNA relatedness data, it is proposed that strain SW28(T) should be placed in the genus Sporosarcina as a new species, Sporosarcina aquimarina sp, nov. The type strain is SW28T (= KCCM 41039(T) = JCM 10887(T)). From the results of the taxonomic re-evaluation, it is also proposed that Bacillus globisporus, Bacillus psychrophilus and Bacillus pasteurii be transferred to the genus Sporosarcina as Sporosarcina globispora, Sporosarcina psychrophila and Sporosarcina pasteurii, respectively.