A Gram-positive, motile, endospore-forming, rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain M2024T, was isolated from Myeolchi-jeotgal, a traditional Korean high-salt fermented anchovy and was characterised using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain M2024T belongs to the genus Lentibacillus in the family Bacillaceae of the Firmicutes. The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that strain M2024T is closely related to Lentibacillus populi WD4L-1T (95.5%), Lentibacillus garicola SL-MJ1T (95.2%) and Virgibacillus siamensis MS3-4T (95.1%). The chemotaxonomic properties of strain M2024T are consistent with those of members of the genus Lentibacillus: the quinone system has MK-7 as the predominant menaquinone and anteiso-C15:0 and anteiso-C17:0 are the predominant cellular fatty acids. The major polar lipids were identified as diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was determined to be 36.2 mol%. Differential phenotypic properties compared with closely related type strains support the conclusion that strain M2024T can be separated from previously described members of the genus Lentibacillus. The strain thus represents a novel species in this genus, for which the name Lentibacillus alimentarius sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is M2024T (= KEMB 9001-124T = JCM 16521T).
Keywords: Anchovy; Lentibacillus; Taxonomy.