Lactobacillus equigenerosi sp. nov., a coccoid species isolated from faeces of thoroughbred racehorses

1 NODAI Culture Collection Center, Tokyo University of Agriculture, 1-1-1 Sakuragaoka, Setagaya, Tokyo 156-8502, Japan 2 Division of Pharmacognosy, Phytochemistry and Narcotics, National Institute of Health Sciences, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 1-18-1 Kamiyoga, Setagaya, Tokyo 158-8501, Japan 3 Department of Microbiology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7025, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden 4 Department of Applied Biology and Chemistry, Tokyo University of Agriculture, 1-1-1 Sakuragaoka, Setagaya, Tokyo 156-8502, Japan 5 School of Veterinary Medicine, Azabu University, 1-17-71 Fuchinobe, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229-8501, Japan Correspondence Akihito Endo pegaman{at}hotmail.co.jp Two strains of lactic acid bacteria were isolated from faeces of two actively racing thoroughbred horses. The isolates formed a subcluster in the Lactobacillus reuteri phylogenetic group, closely related to Lactobacillus fermentum , L. gastricus , L. ingluviei and L. mucosae , by phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences. Levels of DNA–DNA relatedness revealed that the isolates belonged to the same taxon and were genetically separated from their phylogenetic relatives. Biochemical and physiological characteristics also distinguished the isolates from their phylogenetic relatives. The isolates produced spherical or oval cells, and tetrad-like cells were rarely seen. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of this morphological characteristic within the genus Lactobacillus . Thus, the isolates represent an atypical novel species of the genus Lactobacillus , for which the name Lactobacillus equigenerosi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NRIC 0697 T (=JCM 14505 T =DSM 18793 T ). The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the 16S rRNA gene sequences of strains NRIC 0696 and NRIC 0697 T are respectively AB288049 and AB288050 . 16S rRNA gene sequence-based maximum-likelihood and maximum-parsimony trees are available as supplementary material with the online version of this paper.