Characterization of strains of Weissella fabalis sp. nov. and
Fructobacillus tropaeoli
from spontaneous cocoa bean fermentations
Six facultatively anaerobic, non-motile lactic acid bacteria were isolated from spontaneous cocoa bean fermentations carried out in Brazil, Ecuador and Malaysia. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that one of these strains, designated M75T, isolated from a Brazilian cocoa bean fermentation, had the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity towards Weissella fabaria LMG 24289T (97.7 %), W. ghanensis LMG 24286T (93.3 %) and W. beninensis LMG 25373T (93.4 %). The remaining lactic acid bacteria isolates, represented by strain M622, showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity towards the type strain of Fructobacillus tropaeoli (99.9 %), a recently described species isolated from a flower in South Africa. pheS gene sequence analysis indicated that the former strain represented a novel species, whereas pheS, rpoA and atpA gene sequence analysis indicated that the remaining five strains belonged to F. tropaeoli ; these results were confirmed by DNA–DNA hybridization experiments towards their respective nearest phylogenetic neighbours. Additionally, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry proved successful for the identification of species of the genera Weissella and Fructobacillus and for the recognition of the novel species. We propose to classify strain M75T ( = LMG 26217T = CCUG 61472T) as the type strain of the novel species Weissella fabalis sp. nov.