Ga. Dykes et al., TAXONOMY OF LACTIC-ACID BACTERIA ASSOCIATED WITH VACUUM-PACKAGED PROCESSED MEAT SPOILAGE BY MULTIVARIATE-ANALYSIS OF CELLULAR FATTY-ACIDS, International journal of food microbiology, 28(1), 1995, pp. 89-100
The taxonomy of lactic acid bacteria from vacuum-packaged processed me
ats is problematic, and atypical members of the leuconostocs and the L
actobacillus sake / curvatus group are often encountered. In order to
resolve this problem the cellular fatty acid (CFA) content of 61 isola
tes from vacuum-packaged vienna sausages and 18 reference strains was
determined by gas chromatography. The relationship between strains was
derived by principal component analysis of data. The CFA profiles wer
e highly reproducible. Although no relationships could be derived usin
g only one or two differentiating CFAs, plots of the first two princip
al components based on only the six most variable CFAs allowed groupin
g of strains. The two genera (Leuconostoc and Lactobacillus) could not
be clearly separated when analysed together, but differentiation of s
pecies within each of the genera was achieved when they were analysed
independently. Examination of plots for the reference strains confirme
d previously established relationships between these strains. From the
plot of the Lactobacillus sake / Lactobacillus curvatus component of
the study it was found that most atypical Lactobacillus sake / curvatu
s strains were closely related to the typical Lactobacillus sake isola
tes and reference strain, while the Lactobacillus curvatus strains for
med an independent grouping. A small cluster of atypical strains, howe
ver, indicated that this relationship may not be true for all these st
rains. Among the leuconostocs only isolates of Leuconostoc mesenteroid
es could be clearly differentiated.