Lactobacillus nasalidis sp. nov., isolated from the forestomach of a captive proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus)

Abstract

Three strains (YZ01^T, YZ02 and YZ03) of Gram-stain-positive, facultatively anaerobic rods were isolated from the forestomach contents collected from a captive male proboscis monkey (<i>Nasalis larvatus</i>) at Yokohama Zoo in Japan. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that these strains belonged to the genus <i>Lactobacillus</i>. Based on the sequence similarity of the 16S rRNA gene, <i>Lactobacillus delbrueckii</i> subsp. <i>indicus</i> JCM 15610^T was the closest phylogenetic neighbour to YZ01^T. Sequence analyses of two partial concatenated housekeeping genes, the RNA polymerase alpha subunit (<i>rpoA</i>) and phenylalanyl-tRNA synthase alpha subunit (<i>pheS</i>) also indicated that the novel strains belonged to the genus <i>Lactobacillus</i>. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) between <i>L. delbrueckii</i> subsp. <i>indicus</i> and YZ01^T were 85.9 and 31.4 %, respectively. The phylogenetic tree based on the whole genomic data of strains YZ01^T, YZ02 and YZ03 suggested that these three strains formed a single monophyletic cluster in the genus <i>Lactobacillus</i>, indicating that it belonged to a new species. The DNA G+C content of strain YZ01^T was 51.6 mol%. The major fatty acids were C_{16 : 0} and C_{18 : 1} ω9<i>c</i>. Therefore, based on phylogenetic, phenotypic and physiological evidence, strains YZ01^T, YZ02 and YZ03 represent a novel species of the genus <i>Lactobacillus</i>, for which the name <i>Lactobacillus nasalidis</i> sp. nov. is proposed with the type strain YZ01^T (=JCM 33769^T=DSM 110539^T).