Three Gram reaction positive, rod-shaped, moderately motile halophilic bacterial strains, designated YD3-56(T), YD16, and YH29, were isolated from the sediments of Manasi and Aiding salt lakes in the Xinjiang region of China, respectively. The strains grew optimally at 30-37 degrees C, pH 8-11, in the presence of 5-10% (w/v) NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the strains were closely related to members of the genus Oceanobacillus, exhibiting 99.1-99.2% similarity to O. kapialis KCTC 13177(T), 99.2-99.3% to O. picturae KCTC 3821(T), and 94.2-96% sequence similarity to other described Oceanobacillus species. SDS-PAGE of whole cell proteins preparations demonstrated that the strains exhibited high similarity to each other, but distinguished from O. kapialis KCTC 13177(T) and O. picturae KCTC 3821(T) (75%). DNA-DNA hybridization revealed that the similarity between the representative strain YD3-56(T) and O. kapialis KCTC 13177(T) was 35.3%, and the similarity between YD3-56(T) and O. picturae KCTC 3821(T) was 22.3%. Chemotaxonomic analysis of the strains showed menaquinone-7 was the predominant respiratory quinine. Major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C(15:0) and anteiso-C(17:0). The polar lipid pattern for strain YD3-56(T) predominantly contained phosphatidylcholine, and trace to moderate amounts of phosphatidyl ethanolamine and hydroxy-phosphatidyl ethanolamine. The diamino acid in murein was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The DNA G+C content of the strains was 39.7-40.1 mol%. On the basis of these results, the three strains should be classified as a novel species of the genus Oceanobacillus, for which the name Oceanobacillus manasiensis sp. nov. has been proposed, with the type strain as YD3-56(T) (=CGMCC 1.9105(T) =NBRC 105903(T)).