Characterization of lactobacilli from Scotch malt whisky distilleries and description of Lactobacillus ferintoshensis sp nov., a new species isolatedfrom malt whisky fermentations

Sixty-four strains of Lactobacillus were isolated from fermentation samples from 23 malt whisky distilleries located in the major whisky producing reg ions of Scotland. The strains were assigned to 26 ribotype patterns. Strain s of some ribotype patterns were widely distributed and recovered from dist illeries throughout Scotland, while strains representing other ribotypes we re particular to a specific region or even a certain distillery. Repeated s ampling of a single distillery over a 12 month period showed that the range of bacteria present, as indicated by ribotyping, was stable, but was influ enced by changes in malt supply and the period of closure for annual mainte nance, partial 16S rDNA sequence analysis of ribotype representatives revea led Lactobacillus brevis, Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus paracasei and Lactobacillus pentosus as the major species present in the distilleries ; however, four isolates could not be identified by this procedure. Determi nation of the full 16S rDNA gene sequence from one of these isolates (strai n R7-84) revealed > 98.5% similarity to Lactobacillus buchneri and its phyl ogenetic neighbours. DNA from two other strains showed greater than 70% hyb ridization to DNA from R7-84 under non-stringent renaturation conditions an d DNA from strain R7-84 shared less than 65% hybridization with members of the L. buchneri group. It is proposed that these three strains should be pl aced in a new species for which the name Lactobacillus ferintoshensis repre sented by the type strain R7-84(T) is suggested.