TAXONOMIC STATUS OF ATYPICAL LACTOBACILLUS-SAKE AND LACTOBACILLUS-CURVATUS STRAINS ASSOCIATED WITH VACUUM-PACKAGED MEAT SPOILAGE

The taxonomic status of nine typical and atypical Lactobacillus sake a nd Lactobacillus curvatus strains associated with vacuum-packaged meat spoilage was investigated by DNA-DNA homology and compared with four alternative identification methods. Phenotype-based identification met hods as well as 23S rRNA targeted probes produced ambiguous results in the case of atypical strains. DNA-DNA hybridization indicated homolog ies of 63-78% between typical strains and the corresponding type strai n, whereas values ranged from 38% to 54% for atypical strains. This ap parent spectrum of relatedness observed was ascribed to the recent phy logenetic divergence of the two species. Atypical strains should,there fore, be designated as such and not assigned to particular species bas ed on results of identification methods other than DNA-DNA hybridizati on