Novel <i>Staphylococcus</i> sp. isolated from wall scrapings of a historical building in India

Recently, there has been increased interest in the preservation of historic monuments, and considerable effort is being employed in developing new methods for controlling weathering, especially biologically influenced deterioration. Increasing our knowledge about the types of organisms growing on facades will help us to prevent undesirable growth on these structures. This report describes isolation and characterization of a halotolerant bacterium isolated from wall scrapings of a historical building. This organism grew well in SM basal salt medium and nitrogen-free semi-solid LGI medium, and tolerated (1) high temperature (up to 55°C), (2) high salt concentration (20%), and (3) a wide range of pH (5.0-12.0). On the basis of its morphological attributes, biochemical characteristics and partial sequencing of 16S rRNA, it belonged to the genus Staphylococcus with 99% identity to Staphylococcus saprophyticus .