Lactobacillus futsaii sp. nov., isolated from fu-tsai and suan-tsai, traditional Taiwanese fermented mustard products

Three Gram-stain-positive strains were isolated from fermented mustard and were rod-shaped, non-motile, asporogenous, facultatively anaerobic, homofermentative and did not exhibit catalase activity. Comparative analyses of 16S rRNA, pheS and rpoA gene sequences demonstrated that the novel strains were members of the genus LACTOBACILLUS: On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, the type strains of Lactobacillus crustorum (98.7 % similarity), Lactobacillus farciminis (98.9 %) and Lactobacillus mindensis (97.9 %) were the closest neighbours. However, DNA–DNA reassociation values with these strains were less than 50 %. Phenotypic and genotypic features demonstrated that these isolates represent a novel species of the genus Lactobacillus, for which the name Lactobacillus futsaii sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain is YM 0097T ( = JCM 17355T = BCRC 80278T).