Proposal of Lactobacillus amylovorus subsp. animalis subsp. nov. and an emended description of Lactobacillus amylovorus.

Seven novel lactic acid bacterial strains (BF125^T, BF186, TKL145, YK3, YK6, YK10 and NSK) were isolated from the fresh faeces of Japanese black beef cattle and weanling piglets, spent mushroom substrates, or steeping water of a corn starch production plant. These strains are rod-shaped, Gram-stain-positive, non-motile, non-spore-forming, catalase-negative, cytochrome oxidase-negative, facultatively anaerobic, and homofermentative. Strain BF125^T did not produce any gas from glucose; both d- and l-lactate were produced as end-products of glucose (D/L, 40 : 60). Growth occurred at 30-45 °C (optimum, 37 °C), pH 5.0-8.0 (optimum, pH 6.0), and with NaCl concentration of 1.0-3.0% (w/v). The G+C content of genomic DNA of strain BF125^T was 37.8 mol% (whole-genome analysis). The major fatty acids were C_16 : 0, C_18 : 1 ω9c, C₁₉ cyclopropane 9, 10, and summed feature 10. The 16S rRNA gene in strain BF125^T showed high similarity to that of the type strain of Lactobacillus amylovorus (99.93%), and the other isolates were also identified as L. amylovorus based on these similarities. A phylogenetic tree based on the core genomes of L. amylovorus strains (n=54), including the seven isolates, showed that they could be divided into two clusters. Strains YK3, YK6, YK10, and NSK were in the first cluster, along with the type strain DSM 20531^T, while the second cluster included isolates BF125^T, BF186, TKL145, and other strains isolated from various animal origins. Phenotypic differences in fermentability were observed for lactose, salicin, and gentiobiose between these two groups. The intergroup digital DNA-DNA hybridization values (72.9-78.6%) and intergroup average nucleotide identity values (95.64-96.92%) were comparable to values calculated using datasets of other valid subspecies of the genus (ex-) Lactobacillus. In light of the physiological, genotypic, and phylogenetic evidence, we propose a novel subspecies of L. amylovorus, named Lactobacillus amylovorus subsp. animalis subsp. nov. (type strain BF125^T=MAFF 212522^T=DSM 115528^T). Our findings also led to the automatic creation of Lactobacillus amylovorus subsp. amylovorus subsp. nov. and an emended description of the species L. amylovorus.