Lactobacillus versmoldensis sp. nov., isolated from raw fermented sausage

1 Bundesanstalt für Fleischforschung, E.-C.-Baumannstr. 20, D-95326 Kulmbach, Germany 2 Bundesforschungsanstalt für Ernährung, Haid- und Neustr. 9, D-76131 Karlsruhe, Germany 3 VFG Labor GmbH & Co. KG, Nordfeldstr. 19, D-33775 Versmold, Germany 4 Lehrstuhl für Mikrobiologie, TU München, Am Hochanger 4, D-85350 Freising, Germany Correspondence L. Kröckel Kr\|[ouml ]\|ckel. m-kroeckel{at}baff-kulmbach.de Lactobacillus versmoldensis sp. nov. (KU-3 T ) was isolated from raw fermented sausages. The new species was present in high numbers, and frequently dominated the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) populations of the products. 16S rDNA sequence data revealed that the isolates are closely related to the species Lactobacillus kimchii DSM 13961 T , Lactobacillus paralimentarius DSM 13238 T , Lactobacillus alimentarius DSM 20249 T and Lactobacillus farciminis DSM 20184 T . DNA–DNA reassociation data, however, clearly distinguished the new isolates from these species; they showed a low degree of DNA relatedness with the type strains of this group of phylogenetically closely related lactobacilli. These results warrant separate species status for strain KU-3 T , for which the name Lactobacillus versmoldensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is KU-3 T (=DSM 14857 T =NCCB 100034 T =ATCC BAA-478 T ). Abbreviations: LAB, lactic acid bacteria; RAPD, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA; rep-APD, repetitive primer-amplified polymorphic DNA Published online ahead of print on 16 August 2002 as DOI 10.1099/ijs.0.02387-0. The EMBL accession number for the 16S rRNA sequence of KU-3 T is AJ496791. A table showing species similarity based on substrate utilization is available as supplementary data in IJSEM Online ( http://ijs.sgmjournals.org ).