Scientific Publications by FDA Staff

Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2012 Sep;62(Pt 9):2068-76

Lactobacillus brantae sp. nov., isolated from feces of Canada geese (Branta canadensis).

Volokhov DV, Amselle M, Beck BJ, Popham DL, Whittaker P, Wang H, Kerrigan E, Chizhikov VE

Three strains of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were isolated from feces of apparently healthy wild Canada geese (Branta canadensis) in 2010 using the cultivation of fecal LAB on Rogosa SL agar under aerobic conditions. These three isolates were found to share 99.9% sequence similarity of their 16S rRNA, the 16S-23S intergenic transcribed spacer region (ITS), partial 23S rRNA, rpoB, rpoC, rpoA, and pheS gene sequences. However, at the same time these strains exhibited lower levels of sequence similarity of these genetic targets to all known LAB and the phylogenetically closest species to the geese strains were Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus paracasei, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, and Lactobacillus saniviri. In comparison to the phylogenetically closely related species L. casei ATCC 393T, L. paracasei ATCC 25302T, L. rhamnosus ATCC 7469T, L. saniviri DSM 24301T, the novel strains SL1108T, SL1170 and SL60106 reacted uniquely among the tested Lactobacillus species tested with the following chemicals: cellobiose, galactose, mannitol, melibiose, citric acid, dextrin, esculin, negative for L-Proline arylamidase, L-Pyrrolydonyl- arylamidase, and in Voges-Prokauer test. The biochemical tests for cellobiose, esculin, galactose, gentiobiose, mannitol, melezitose, ribose, salicin, sucrose, trehalose, raffinose, turanose, amygdalin, and arbutin can be used for differenciation between Lactobacillus saniviri and the novel strains. On the basis of phenotypic, genotypic characteristics and phylogenetic data, these isolates represent a novel species of the genus Lactobacillus, for which the name Lactobacillus brantae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SL1108T (=ATCC BAA-2142T = BCCM/LMG LMG 26001T = DSM 23927T).