Reclassification of Lactobacillus kefirgranum Takizawa et al. 1994 as Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens subsp. kefirgranum subsp. nov. and emended description of L. kefiranofaciens Fujisawa et al. 1988

1 BCCM/LMG Bacteria Collection, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium 2 DANONE Vitapole, Vitavaleur, Palaiseau, France 3 Laboratory of Microbiology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium Correspondence M. Vancanneyt marc.vancanneyt{at}ugent.be Fourteen homofermentative lactic acid bacteria that were isolated from kefir grains and kefir fermented milks were assigned to either Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens or Lactobacillus kefirgranum , based on their characteristic morphotypes, phenotypic features and SDS-PAGE profiles of whole-cell proteins. Further genotypic analyses on representative strains from both taxa demonstrated that L. kefiranofaciens and L. kefirgranum share 100 % 16S rDNA sequence similarity and belong phylogenetically to the Lactobacillus acidophilus species group. DNA–DNA binding values of >79 % and analogous DNA G+C contents of 37–38 mol% showed that the strains studied belonged to one species: L. kefirgranum is a later synonym of L. kefiranofaciens . An emended description is proposed for L. kefiranofaciens . Due to the specific morphological and biochemical characteristics of these taxa in kefir grain formation, it is proposed that L. kefirgranum should be reclassified as L. kefiranofaciens subsp. kefirgranum subsp. nov. Published online ahead of print on 17 October 2003 as DOI 10.1099/ijs.0.02912-0. The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the 16S rDNA sequences of Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens LMG 19149 T and R-14703 and Lactobacillus kefirgranum LMG 15132 T and R-12929 are AJ575259 , AJ575260 , AJ575261 and AJ575262 , respectively.