Lactobacillus sucicola sp. nov., a motile lactic acid bacterium isolated from oak tree (Quercus sp.) sap.

Three strains of rod-shaped and motile lactic acid bacteria, NRIC 0736(T), NRIC 0735 and NRIC 0737 were isolated from sap obtained from two different oak trees (Quercus sp.) on Awashima Island, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan. The three strains showed nearly identical 16S rRNA gene sequences (>99.7 % sequence similarity). The novel strains showed low 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities to recognized species of lactic acid bacteria. High gene sequence similarities were found between strain NRIC 0736(T) and Lactobacillus satsumensis NRIC 0604(T) (96.3 %), Lactobacillus mali DSM 20444(T) (95.3 %) and Lactobacillus vini DSM 20605(T) (95.3 %). DNA-DNA relatedness values revealed the genotypic separation of the three novel isolates from these recognized species. It is concluded that the three new isolates represent a novel species, for which the name Lactobacillus sucicola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NRIC 0736(T) (=JCM 15457(T)=DSM 21376(T)).