A novel Gram-staining-positive, moderately halophilic bacterium, designated strain A76T, was isolated from the brine sample of the hypersaline lake Aran-Bidgol in Iran. Cells were strictly aerobic, coccus-shaped, non-motile, non-sporulating, catalase and oxidase positive. Strain A76T grew between pH 7.0-10.0 (optimal growth at pH 8.0), between 20-45°C (optimal growth at 35°C) and at salinities of 0.5 to 12.5% (w/v) NaCl (optimal growth at 7.5% [w/v] NaCl). On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain A76T was shown to belong to the phylum Firmicutes with sequence similarities of 94.1%, 93.1% and 91.1%, to the type species of the genera Jeotgalicoccus, Salinicoccus and Nosocomiicoccus, respectively. The DNA G+C content of this new isolate was 38.8 mol%. The major cellular fatty acids of strain A76T were anteiso-C15:0 and iso-C15:0, and its polar lipid pattern consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, a glycolipid, an unknown lipid and two unknown phospholipids. The isoprenoid quinones were MK-6 (94%), MK-5 (3%) and MK-7 (3%). The amino acid constituents of the cell wall were Lys, Asp, Gly, Glu and Ala. The physiological, biochemical and phylogenetic differences between strain A76T and type strains of validly named taxa suggest that this strain represents a new species in a novel genus within the Staphylococcaceae, for which the name Aliicoccus persicus gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Aliicoccus persicus is strain A76T (=CECT 8508T =DSM 28306T =IBRC-M 10081T).

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