[The lactic acid enterococci Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus durans: nucleotide sequence diversity in 16S rRNA genes].

Among the strains used as starters for making sour milk products on the territory of the CIS, the bacteria Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus durans are frequently found. In this work, we studied a new collection of lactic acid enterococci and also obtained more complete data on the nucleotide sequences of 16S rRNA genes in some strains studied earlier and found that most strains had certain distinctions in their 16S rRNA genes as compared with the E. durans and E. faecium genes available in the NCBI database. Based on these data, it is suggested that the strains of lactic acid enterococci represent new, earlier unknown taxa of enterococci that use milk as an ecological niche.