Leuconostoc holzapfelii sp. nov., isolated from Ethiopian coffee fermentation and assessment of sequence analysis of housekeeping genes for delineation of Leuconostoc species.

A Gram-positive, ovoid lactic acid bacterium, strain LMG 23990(T), was isolated from Ethiopian coffee fermentation. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that the novel strain belongs to the genus Leuconostoc, with Leuconostoc citreum and Leuconostoc lactis as the closest neighbours (99.6 and 99.0 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, respectively). Genotypic fingerprinting by fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism, whole-cell protein electrophoresis, DNA-DNA hybridizations, comparative sequence analysis of pheS, rpoA, atpA, and physiological and biochemical tests allowed us to differentiate strain LMG 23990(T) from all established Leuconostoc species. Strain LMG 23990(T) (=CCUG 54536(T)) therefore represents a novel species, for which the name Leuconostoc holzapfelii sp. nov. is proposed.