Characterization of strains of Weissella fabalis sp. nov. and Fructobacillus tropaeoli from spontaneous cocoa bean fermentations

Six facultative anaerobic, non-motile lactic acid bacteria were isolated from spontaneous cocoa bean fermentations carried out in Brazil, Ecuador, and Malaysia. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that one of these strains, designated M75T, isolated from a Brazilian cocoa bean fermentation, had the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity towards Weissella fabaria LMG 24289T (97.7%), Weissella ghanensis LMG 24286T (93.3%) and Weissella beninensis LMG 25373T (93.4%). The remaining lactic acid bacteria isolates, represented by strain M622, showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity towards Fructobacillus tropaeoli (99.9%), a recently described species isolated from a flower in South Africa. PheS gene sequence analysis indicated that the former strain represented a novel species, whereas pheS, rpoA and atpA gene sequence analysis indicated that the remaining five strains belonged to F. tropaeoli; these results were confirmed by DNA-DNA hybridization experiments towards their respective nearest phylogenetic neighbors. Additionally, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry proved successful for the identification of Weissella and Fructobacillus species and for the recognition of the novel species. We propose to classify strain M75T (= LMG 26217T = CCUG 61472T) as Weissella fabalis sp. nov.

Jaar van publicatie:2013

Trefwoorden:cocoa, fermentation