Taxonomic homogeneity of a salt-tolerant lactic acid bacteria isolated from shoyu mash

Forty-seven salt-tolerant lactic acid bacteria, which had been isolated from different places and grown in 15% NaCl, were examined to assess their taxonomic heterogeneity. Among the isolates, 42 were isolated from shoyu mash during the acid fermentation phase, 2 were from miso and 3 were from anchovy pickles. All isolates were identified as Tetragenococcus halophilus on the basis of DNA relatedness values. We further examined 102 phenotypic characteristics of them. The isolates exhibited differences in only 16, supporting the conclusion obtained from the DNA relatedness analysis.