Enterococcus camelliae sp. nov., isolated from fermented tea leaves in Thailand

Abstract

A Gram-positive and catalase-negative coccus that formed chains, strain FP15-1T, isolated from fermented tea leaves ('miang'), was studied systematically. The strain was facultatively anaerobic and produced L-lactic acid from glucose. Demethylmenaquinone (DMK-7) was the major menaquinone. Straight-chain unsaturated fatty acids C16:1 and C18:1 were the dominant components. The DNA G+C content was 37.8 mol%. On the basis of 16S rRNA and RNA polymerase α subunit (rpoA) gene sequence analysis, strain FP15-1T was closely related to Enterococcus italicus KCTC 5373T, with 99.2 and 93.8% similarity, respectively. The strain could be clearly distinguished from E. italicus ATCC 5373T by low DNA-DNA relatedness (≤33.8%) and phenotypic characteristics. Therefore, this strain represent a novel species of the genus Enterococcus, for which the name Enterococcus camelliae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is FP15-1T (=KCTC 13133T =NBRC 101868T =NRIC 0105T =TISTR 932T =PCU 277T).