sp. nov., isolated from fermented tea leaves in Thailand.

A Gram-stain-positive, catalase-negative, rod-shaped, non-motile, non-spore-forming, and facultatively anaerobic strain CRM56-3, isolated from fermented tea leaves collected from Chiang Rai province, Thailand, was characterized based on a polyphasic approach. The strain produced dl-lactic acid heterofermentatively from glucose. It grew at 15-42 °C (optimum at 30 °C), pH 3.5-8.0 (optimum pH 6.0) and in 1-4 % (w/v) NaCl. Strain CRM56-3 contained C, C cyclo 8, and C 7, and/or C 6c as major cellular fatty acids. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain CRM56-3 belongs to the genus and was closely related to DSM 19909 (99.2 %), JCM 1123 (98.9 %), and DSM 15502 (98.7 %). The draft genome of strain CRM56-3 contained 2681617 bp with 2413 coding sequences and DNA G+C content determined from genome sequence of 44.5 mol%. The digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) between strain CRM56-3 and DSM 19909, JCM 1123, and DSM 15502 were 19.5, 20.4, and 21.6 %, respectively. The average nucleotide identity (ANIm) and the average amino acid identity (AAI) between strain CRM56-3 and closely related strains were lower than 85.0 and 80.0 %, respectively. The strain CRM56-3 was clearly distinguished from related species by its phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, and the draft genome analysis. Therefore, the strain represents a novel species of the genus for which the name of sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CRM56-3 (=JCM 34223=LMG 31663=TISTR 2851).