BACILLUS-EHIMENSIS SP-NOV AND BACILLUS-CHITINOLYTICUS SP-NOV, NEW CHITINOLYTIC MEMBERS OF THE GENUS BACILLUS

Five chitin-degrading bacteria were isolated from soil. These organism s were strictly aerobic and rod shaped, formed spores, contained menaq uinone 7 as the major isoprenoid quinone and 12-methyltetradecanoic ac id as the major cellular fatty acid, and had guanine-plus cytosine con tents of 51.3 to 54.9 mol%, characteristics which indicate that they b elong to the genus Bacillus. These five strains were divided into two groups on the basis of physiological characteristics and the results o f a DNA-DNA hybridization study. As low levels of DNA relatedness were found between our isolates and previously described Bacillus strains, we propose that our isolates should be classified in two new Bacillus species, Bacillus ehimensis and Bacillus chitinolyticus. The type str ains of B. ehimensis and B. chitinolyticus are strains IFO 15659 and I FO 15660, respectively.