f Paenibacillus apiarius sp. nov.

The name “Bacillus apiarius” Katznelson 1955 was not included on the Approved Lists of Bacterial Names and thus lost standing in bactenal nomenclature. The genetic homogeneity of “B. apiarius” strains was assessed by determining their G+C contents by the buoyant density method and by measuring the levels of DNA relatedness by spectrophotometric reassociation procedures. The G+C contents of the 15 strains examined, ranged from 52 to 54 mol%. DNA reassociation revealed the presence of two clusters each with high levels of intragroup relatedness (60 to 100%). One cluster consisted of six strains highly related to Bacillus thiaminolyticus, and the other consisted of nine strains related to the designated type strain of “B. apiarius.” The strains in the second cluster were not closely related genetically to the type strains of organisms frequently associated with honey bees (namely, Paenibacillus alvei, Paenibacillus larvae, Bacillus laterosporus, and Paenibacillus pulvifaciens). The “B. apiarius” strains in the second cluster were also phenotypically homogeneous and distinguishable from the previously described species. Comparative analyses of the 16S rRNA gene DNA sequence showed that the proper phylogenetic position of the second cluster was in the genus Paenibacillus. These findings justify the proposal of a new species with the name Paenibacillus apiarius. The type strain is NRRL NRS-1438.