Abstract
Eight strains of aerobic, spore-forming, Gram-positive, moderately halophilic bacteria were isolated from sauce (nam-pla and bu-du) produced in Thailand by the fermentation of fish. They grew optimally in the presence of 10% NaCl, at 37 degreesC and pH 7-0. A diagnostic diamino acid, meso-diaminopimelic acid, was present in the cell-wall peptidoglycan. The predominant menaquinone was MK-7. The major cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C-15:0 and iso-C-16: 0. Phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol and an unidentified glycolipid were found to be the major polar lipid components. The DNA G + C content was 42-43 mol%. These bacteria were further divided into two groups based on phenotypic characteristics and DNA-DNA similarities. Three strains of Group I were highly affiliated to the type strain of Lentibacillus salicampi in terms of phenotypic characterization and DNA-DNA similarities (96-102%); accordingly, they were T identified as strains of L. salicampi. A representative strain of Group 11, strain IS40-3(T), was most closely related to L. salicampi in terms of 16S rRNA-based phylogenetic analysis, although five strains of Group 11 could be distinguished from L. salicampi by means of several phenotypic properties, low 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (95.2%) and low DNA-DNA similarities (12-32%). Therefore, the Group 11 strains should be included in a novel species of the genus Lentibacillus, for which the name Lentibacillus juripiscarius sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is IS40-3(T) (= JCM 12147(T) = PCU 229(T) = TISTR 1535(T)).
