Lactobacillus nodensis sp. nov., isolated from rice bran.

Gram-positive, rod-shaped, non-motile lactic acid bacteria, strains iz4b-1T, iz4b-2 and iz4c-1, were isolated in an attempt to study the composition of the Lactobacillus flora of Japanese pickles. Analysis of their 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the strains clustered in the Lactobacillus alimentarius group, and comparatively high similarities were shown to 'Lactobacillus tucceti' CECT 5920 (97.0 %), Lactobacillus versmoldensis KU-3T (96.4 %) and Lactobacillus nantensis LP33T (94.4 %). DNA-DNA hybridization assays clearly revealed that the isolates represented a novel taxon. The DNA G+C content was 40.6 mol% and the peptidoglycan type was L-Lys-D-Asp. Thus, these isolates represent a novel Lactobacillus species, for which the name Lactobacillus nodensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is iz4b-1T (=DSM 19682T =JCM 14932T).