title: Efficacy of recA gene sequence analysis in the identification and discrimination of Lactobacillus hilgardii strains isolated from stuck wine fermentations.
abstract: Conventional phenotypic methods sometimes lead to misidentification of some heterofermentative wine lactobacilli such as Lactobacillus hilgardii, Lactobacillus buchneri, and Lactobacillus brevis. We establish the specificity of 16S rDNA sequencing in the differentiation of these species and in the rejection of the Lactobacillus vermiforme species name. Moreover, we succeeded in differentiating these heterofermentative species by means of recA gene sequence comparison. Short homologous regions were amplified by PCR with degenerate consensus primers, sequenced, and 280 bp were analysed and considered for the inference of phylogenetic trees. The phylogram obtained was coherent and clearly separated the three species. The recA gene sequence was a reliable and useful method that allowed a good discrimination among closely related species. The validity of the recA gene sequence, restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the PCR-amplified 16S-23S rDNA intergenic spacer region (ISR), and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) to study the L. hilgardii intraspecies heterogeneity was tested in five strains isolated from stuck wine fermentations at the same winery in the same vintage. The results indicated that L. hilgardii is a heterogeneous species. Since L. hilgardii is a malolactic species that can influence the final quality of the wine, the presence of oenological relevant genes, such as those involved in ethyl carbamate or biogenic amine production, was investigated.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Microbiología, Instituto de Fermentaciones Industriales, CSIC, Juan de la Cierva 3, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Héctor
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.forename: Blanca
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: de Las Rivas
authors.forename: Rosario
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Muñoz
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis*; D005285:Fermentation; D005784:Gene Amplification; D007778:Lactobacillus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D052196:Levilactobacillus brevis / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D019105:Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique; D011938:Rec A Recombinases / Q000235:genetics; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013045:Species Specificity; D014920:Wine / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D011938:Rec A Recombinases