Lactobacillus allii sp. nov. isolated from scallion kimchi

A novel strain of lactic acid bacteria, WiKim39(T), was isolated from a scallion kimchi sample consisting of fermented chili peppers and vegetables. The isolate was a Gram-positive, rod-shaped, non-motile, catalase-negative and facultatively anaerobic lactic acid bacterium. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that strain WiKim39(T) belonged to the genus Lactobacillus, and shared 97.1–98.2 % pair-wise sequence similarities with related type strains, Lactobacillus nodensis, Lactobacillus insicii, Lactobacillus versmoldensis, Lactobacillus tucceti and Lactobacillus furfuricola. The G+C content of the strain based on its genome sequence was 35.3 mol%. The ANI values between WiKim39(T) and the closest relatives were lower than 80 %. Based on the phenotypic, biochemical, and phylogenetic analyses, strain WiKim39(T) represents a novel species of the genus Lactobacillus, for which the name Lactobacillus allii sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is WiKim39(T) (=KCTC 21077(T)=JCM 31938(T)).