Lactobacillus farraginis sp. nov. and Lactobacillus parafarraginis sp. nov., heterofermentative lactobacilli isolated from a compost of distilled shochu residue.

Five strains of lactic acid bacteria were isolated from a compost of distilled shochu residue in Japan. The isolates were separated into two groups on the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, and two subclusters were formed that comprised micro-organisms closely related to Lactobacillus buchneri, L. diolivorans, L. hilgardii, L. kefiri, L. parabuchneri and L. parakefiri. DNA-DNA relatedness results revealed that the isolates could be separated into two groups, and these groups correlated well with the subclusters generated using the phylogenetic analysis. Moreover, the levels of DNA-DNA relatedness showed clear separation of the two groups from their phylogenetic relatives. Therefore, the two groups represent two novel species, for which the names Lactobacillus farraginis sp. nov. (type strain NRIC 0676(T)=JCM 14108(T)=DSM 18382(T)) and Lactobacillus parafarraginis sp. nov. (type strain NRIC 0677(T)=JCM 14109(T)=DSM 18390(T)) are proposed.