Lactobacillus algidus sp nov., a psychrophilic lactic acid bacterium isolated from vacuum-packaged refrigerated beef

Lactobacillus algidus sp. nov. is described on the basis of 40 strains isol ated as one of the predominant bacteria from five specimens of vacuum-packa ged beef collected from different meat shops and stored at 2 degrees C for 3 weeks. These strains were quite uniform in the overall characteristics ex amined. They are facultatively anaerobic, psychrophilic, Cram-positive, non -spore-forming, nonmotile, lactic acid-homofermentative rods. The cells occ urred singly and in pairs on agar media and in rather long chains in broth media. They differed in several cultural and biochemical characteristics fr om the authentic meso-diaminopimelic acid-positive or psychrophilic lactic acid bacteria in the genera Lactobacillus, Carnobacterium and Brochothrix, The SDS-PAGE whole-cell protein pattern was clearly distinctive. DNA-DNA hy bridization and phylogenetic analysis of 16S rDNA also failed to associate these strains closely with any of the validly described organisms used. The phylogenetic analysis showed that these strains are rather remotely but mo st closely related to Lactobacillus mall (93% sequence similarity), which b elongs to the Lactobacillus caseilPediococcus group. Therefore, these strai ns should be included in the genus Lactobacillus and considered to represen t a new species, Lactobacillus algidus sp. nov. The type strain is M6A9(T) (= JCM 10491(T)).