Lactobacillus senmaizukei sp. nov., isolated from Japanese pickle.

The taxonomic position of a lactic acid bacterium, strain L13(T), isolated from senmaizuke, a Japanese traditional pickle, was studied. This strain was a heterofermentative, facultatively anaerobic, Gram-positive, non-spore-forming, non-motile, rod-shaped bacterium. It produced dl-lactic acid from glucose. Phylogenetic analysis of its 16S rRNA gene sequence and physiological and biochemical characteristics indicated that the strain was a member of the genus Lactobacillus. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, strain L13(T) was closely related to Lactobacillus hammesii CIP 108387(T) (98.9 %) and Lactobacillus parabrevis ATCC 53295(T) (98.5 %). In addition, the rpoA gene sequence of strain L13(T) was closely related to those of L. hammesii CIP 108387(T) (92.2 %) and L. parabrevis ATCC 53295(T) (92.0 %). However, DNA-DNA hybridization of strain L13(T) with these two strains revealed that strain L13(T) represents a separate genomic species. The DNA G+C content of strain L13(T) was 46 mol% and the peptidoglycan was of the A4alpha l-Lys-d-Asp type. Thus, these data indicate that strain L13(T) represents a novel species of the genus Lactobacillus, for which the name Lactobacillus senmaizukei is proposed. The type strain is L13(T) (=NBRC 103853(T)=TISTR 1847(T)).