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Genetic and physiological diversity of Tetragenococcus halophilus strains isolated from sugar- and salt-rich environments

¹ Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Leuven Food Science and Nutrition Research Centre (LFoRCe), Department Microbial and Molecular Systems, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
² Research Group Microbial Ecology and Biorational Control, Scientia Terrae Research Institute, B-2860 Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Belgium
³ Research Group Process Microbial Ecology and Management and Leuven Food Science and Nutrition Research Centre (LFoRCe), Department Microbial and Molecular Systems, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Association, De Nayer Institute, B-2860 Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Belgium
⁴ Center for Microbial Ecology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
⁵ Department of Biotechnology, Südzucker AG, Mannheim/Ochsenfurt, ZAFES, Obrigheim/Pfalz, Germany

Correspondence
Kris A. Willems
kwi{at}scientiaterrae.org

Tetragenococcus halophilus is known to flourish in extreme salt environments. Recently, this halophilic bacterium also appeared as the dominant microflora during storage of sugar thick juice, an intermediate product of beet sugar production. Although T. halophilus can cause degradation of thick juice, dominance of this bacterium does not always result in degradation. In this study T. halophilus strains from high-salt and high-sugar environments, and in particular from degraded and non-degraded thick juice, were compared in detail. Both physiological and genetic characterization using Biolog, repetitive PCR fingerprinting (rep-PCR) and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technology, revealed clear differences between T. halophilus strains isolated from salt- and sugar-rich environments. However, no strain pattern could be specifically and systematically associated with degraded or non-degraded thick juice. Remarkably, halophilic T. halophilus strains were not able to grow in sugar thick juice. Irrespective of the differences between the strains from high-salt or high-sugar environments, DNA–DNA hybridization grouped all strains within the species T. halophilus, except one isolate from sugar thick juice that showed different physiological and genetic characteristics, and that may represent a new species of Tetragenococcus.

The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the sequences determined in this work are given in Fig. 2.