Reidentification of facultatively alkaliphilic Bacillus firmus OF4 as Bacillus pseudofirmus OF4

With a view toward verifying the original classification of alkaliphilic Ba cillus firmus OF4, physiological and biochemical characteristics were more extensively catalogued than in original studies, and this catalog was suppl emented with 16S rDNA sequence homology and more extensive DNA-DNA hybridiz ation analyses. Phylogenetic analysis of this alkaliphile based on the comp arison of multiple 16S rDNA sequences from Bacillus species indicated that this strain is most closely related to Bacillus pseudofirmus. Consistently, in the DNA-DNA hybridization analysis of the alkaliphile and Bacillus refe rence strains, the highest level of DNA-DNA relatedness (96%) was found bet ween the alkaliphile and the B. pseudofirmus type strain (DSM 8715(T)). The findings support the conclusion that this alkaliphile strain is more close ly related to B. pseudofirmus than to B. firmus, and we propose the future use of the designation B. pseudofirmus OF4.