A Gram-positive, aerobic, rod-shaped, motile, endospore-forming bacterium was isolated from pasteurized milk from Bavaria, Germany. 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities indicated that strain WSBC 24001(T) was most closely related to Virgibacillus species (95(.)3-96(.)1%), Oceanobacillus species (95(.)6-95(.)7%), Bacillus firmus IAM 12464(T) (95(.)5%) and Bacillus niacini IFO 15566(T) (95(.)2%). However, strain WSBC 24001(T) showed the highest level of sequence similarity to an unnamed strain, MB-9(T) (97(.)6%), which was isolated from coastal surface sediments in California. Hence, this strain was included in our study. The genomic DNA G + C contents of strains WSBC 24001(T) and MB-9(T) were 36(.)4 mol and 40(.)8 mol%, respectively. The major respiratory quinone of both strains was menaquinone MK-7 and the peptidoglycan type was A4 beta (L-Orn <- D-Asp). The polar lipid profiles of these strains contained a predominance of cliphosphatidylglycerol and moderate to minor amounts of phosphatidylglycerol, an unknown phospholipid and an unknown aminophospholipid. However, strain WSBC 24001(T) could be distinguished from strain MB-9(T) by the presence of an unknown lipid. The fatty acid profiles of the two strains comprised mainly iso- and anteiso-branched acids, but showed some significant quantitative differences in the amounts of certain acids. The DNA-DNA relatedness value (15(.)5%) clearly demonstrated that strains WSBC 24001(T) and MB-9(T) are representatives of two different species. On the basis of their phylogenetic position and morphological, physiological and chemotaxonomic properties, a novel genus is proposed, Ornithinibacillus gen. nov., with two novel species, the type species Ornithinibacillus bavariensis sp. nov. (type strain WSBC 24001(T) = DSM 1568(T)=CCM 7096(T)) and Ornithinibacillus californiensis sp. nov. (type strain MB-9(T) = DSM 16628(T) = CCM 7237(T)).
