Kurthia huakuii sp. nov., isolated from biogas slurry, and emended description of the genus Kurthia T were Gram-stain-positive, motile, non-sporeforming and short-rod-shaped. The optimal temperature and pH for growth were 30 6C and 7.0, respectively. The strain did not require NaCl for growth but tolerated up to 70 g NaCl l "1 . The major fatty acids of strain LAM0618 T were iso-C 15 : 0 , anteiso-C 15 : 0 , iso-C 14 : 0 , C 16 : 0 and C 18 : 0 .The predominant menaquinones of strain LAM0618 T were menaquinone 7 (MK-7) and menaquinone 6 (MK-6). The genus Kurthia belongs to the family Planococcaceae of the phylum Firmicutes, and was created by Trevisan (1885) in honour of H. Kurth who published the description of the first species, Bacterium zopfii, which was isolated from the intestinal contents of chickens (Kurth, 1883). The genus name Kurthia came into general use only after the publication of the seventh edition of Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology (Breed et al., 1957). At the time of writing, the genus Kurthia comprised three recognized species (http://www.bacterio.net/ijk/kurthia.html) namely Kurthia zopfii, Kurthia gibsonii (Shaw & Keddie, 1983) and Kurthia sibirica (Belikova et al., 1986). In year 2012, a novel strain, 'Kurthia massiliensis' DSM 24639 was isolated and described (Roux et al., 2012). While studying the bacterial diversity of biogas slurry from the large-scale anaerobic digester in Hebei Province in China, a Kurthia-like strain, designated LAM0618 T , was isolated. Based on its phenotypic and genotypic properties, the new isolate was considered to represent a novel species of the genus Kurthia.
Strain LAM0618T was isolated in 2012 from biogas slurry samples collected from the large-scale anaerobic digester of Modern Farming Corporation (41 u 529 N 115 u 489 E) located in Hebei Province in China. The strain grew well on nutrient agar (BD/Difco 212000, Sparks, MD, USA) plates at 30 u C. Morphological and physiological characteristics of cells from an exponentially growing culture were investigated by using a light microscope (Nikon 80i) and a transmission electron microscope (Hitachi 7500). The physiologically optimal growth conditions for strain LAM0618T were tested in nutrient broth medium. All tests were conducted independently in duplicate. The strain was cultured at temperatures of 4, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 and 55 u C; pH 5, 5.5, 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5 and 10; and NaCl concentrations of 0, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, 6.5, 7, 8, 10, 12 and 14 %. TheThe GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain LAM0618T is KC904244.