DOI: 10.1099/ijsem.0.004107 ISSN:
A taxonomic note on the genus Lactobacillus: Description of 23 novel genera, emended description of the genus Lactobacillus Beijerinck 1901, and union of Lactobacillaceae and Leuconostocaceae
Jinshui Zheng, Stijn Wittouck, Elisa Salvetti, Charles M.A.P. Franz, Hugh M.B. Harris, Paola Mattarelli, Paul W. O’Toole, Bruno Pot, Peter Vandamme, Jens Walter, Koichi Watanabe, Sander Wuyts, Giovanna E. Felis, Michael G. Gänzle, Sarah Lebeer The genus
Lactobacillus
comprises 261 species (at March 2020) that are extremely diverse at phenotypic, ecological and genotypic levels. This study evaluated the taxonomy of
Lactobacillaceae
and
Leuconostocaceae
on the basis of whole genome sequences. Parameters that were evaluated included core genome phylogeny, (conserved) pairwise average amino acid identity, clade-specific signature genes, physiological criteria and the ecology of the organisms. Based on this polyphasic approach, we propose reclassification of the genus
Lactobacillus
into 25 genera including the emended genus
Lactobacillus
,
which includes host-adapted organisms that have been referred to as the
Lactobacillus delbrueckii
group,
Paralactobacillus
and 23 novel genera for which the names
Holzapfelia,
Amylolactobacillus,
Bombilactobacillus,
Companilactobacillus,
Lapidilactobacillus,
Agrilactobacillus,
Schleiferilactobacillus,
Loigolactobacilus,
Lacticaseibacillus,
Latilactobacillus,
Dellaglioa,
Liquorilactobacillus,
Ligilactobacillus,
Lactiplantibacillus,
Furfurilactobacillus,
Paucilactobacillus,
Limosilactobacillus,
Fructilactobacillus,
Acetilactobacillus,
Apilactobacillus,
Levilactobacillus,
Secundilactobacillus and
Lentilactobacillus are proposed. We also propose to emend the description of the family
Lactobacillaceae
to include all genera that were previously included in families
Lactobacillaceae
and
Leuconostocaceae
. The generic term ‘lactobacilli’ will remain useful to designate all organisms that were classified as
Lactobacillaceae
until 2020. This reclassification reflects the phylogenetic position of the micro-organisms, and groups lactobacilli into robust clades with shared ecological and metabolic properties, as exemplified for the emended genus
Lactobacillus
encompassing species adapted to vertebrates (such as
Lactobacillus delbrueckii
,
Lactobacillus iners
,
Lactobacillus crispatus
,
Lactobacillus jensensii,
Lactobacillus johnsonii
and
Lactobacillus acidophilus
) or invertebrates (such as
Lactobacillus apis
and
Lactobacillus bombicola
).