Lactobacillus paraplantarum sp. nov., a New Species Related to Lactobacillus plantarum

Abstract

Four strains of facultatively heterofermentative lactobacilli isolated from beer and human feces have physiological characteristics similar to those of Lactobacillus plantarum. Unlike 66% of the L. plantarum strains tested (F. Bringel, M.-C. Curk, and J.-C. Hubert, Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 46:588-594, 1996), these strains do not catabolize alpha-methyl-D-mannoside. However, because they exhibit little DNA relatedness to L. plantarum and Lactobacillus pentosus, these four strains were classified as members of a new species, Lactobacillus paraplantarum; strain CNRZ 1885 (= CIP 104668) is the type strain.