Lactobacillus alvi sp. nov., isolated from the intestinal tract of chicken

Strain R54(T) was isolated from the gizzard of hens. The isolate was Gram-positive, facultative anaerobic, gas-forming, catalase-negative, nonmotile, nonspore-forming and short-rod-shaped. The optimal temperature for growth was 40 °C and the DNA G+C content was 42.7 mol%. The 16S rRNA gene sequences similarity showed that strain R54(T) was most closely related to Lactobacillus ingluviei LMG 20380(T) (97.5%), followed by Lactobacillus coleohominis CIP 106820(T) (96.1%), Lactobacillus secaliphilus DSM 17896(T) (95.6%) and Lactobacillus gastricus LMG 22113(T) (95.4%). The DNA-DNA relatedness between strain R54(T) and L. ingluviei LMG 20380(T) , was 43.3%. The predominant cellular fatty acids of strain R54(T) were C(18:1 ω9c) (64.9%) and C(16:0) (20.0%), and the major polar lipid group was phospholipids. On the basis of polyphasic taxonomy approach, strain R54(T) represents a novel species of the genus Lactobacillus, for which the name Lactobacillus alvi sp. nov. is proposed (type strain R54(T) = KCCM 90099(T) = JCM 17644(T)).