Weissella muntiaci sp. nov., isolated from faeces of Formosan barking deer (Muntiacus reevesi)

Abstract

A Gram-stain-positive strain, 8 H-2^T, was isolated from faeces of Reeves' muntjac (<i>Muntiacus reevesi</i>) barking deer in Taiwan. Cells of the strain were short rod-shaped, non-motile, non-haemolytic, asporogenous, facultatively anaerobic, heterofermentative and did not exhibit catalase and oxidase activities. Comparative analyses of 16S rRNA, <i>pheS</i> and <i>dnaA</i> gene sequences demonstrated that the novel strain was a member of the genus <i>Weissella</i>. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities, the type strains of <i>Weissella oryzae</i> (99.2 %), <i>Weissella confusa</i> (97.8 %), <i>Weissella cibaria</i> (97.6 %) and <i>Weissella soli</i> (97.3 %) were the closest neighbours to strain 8 H-2^T. The concatenated housekeeping gene sequence (<i>pheS</i> and <i>dnaA</i>) similarities of 8 H-2^T to closely related type strains were 72.5-84.9 %, respectively. The genomic DNA G+C content was 40.5 mol%. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values with these type strains were 70.2-75.4% and 25.1-30.1 %, respectively. Phenotypic and genotypic test results demonstrated that strain 8 H-2^T represents a novel species belonging to the genus <i>Weissella</i>, for which the name <i>Weissella muntiaci</i> sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 8 H-2^T (=BCRC 81133^T=NBRC 113537^T).