title: The evolution and population structure of Lactobacillus fermentum from different naturally fermented products as determined by multilocus sequence typing (MLST).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Lactobacillus fermentum is economically important in the production and preservation of fermented foods. A repeatable and discriminative typing method was devised to characterize L. fermentum at the molecular level. The multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme developed was based on analysis of the internal sequence of 11 housekeeping gene fragments (clpX, dnaA, dnaK, groEL, murC, murE, pepX, pyrG, recA, rpoB, and uvrC).
  
  
  RESULTS
  MLST analysis of 203 isolates of L. fermentum from Mongolia and seven provinces/ autonomous regions in China identified 57 sequence types (ST), 27 of which were represented by only a single isolate, indicating high genetic diversity. Phylogenetic analyses based on the sequence of the 11 housekeeping gene fragments indicated that the L. fermentum isolates analyzed belonged to two major groups. A standardized index of association (I A (S)) indicated a weak clonal population structure in L. fermentum. Split decomposition analysis indicated that recombination played an important role in generating the genetic diversity observed in L. fermentum. The results from the minimum spanning tree strongly suggested that evolution of L. fermentum STs was not correlated with geography or food-type.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The MLST scheme developed will be valuable for further studies on the evolution and population structure of L. fermentum isolates used in food products.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Dairy Biotechnology and Engineering, Education Ministry of P. R. China, Department of Food Science and Engineering, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, 010018, P. R. China. dantong813218@aliyun.com.
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dan
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Dairy Biotechnology and Engineering, Education Ministry of P. R. China, Department of Food Science and Engineering, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, 010018, P. R. China. wjliu168@163.com.
authors.forename: Wenjun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Dairy Biotechnology and Engineering, Education Ministry of P. R. China, Department of Food Science and Engineering, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, 010018, P. R. China. songyqnd@163.com.
authors.forename: Yuqin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Dairy Biotechnology and Engineering, Education Ministry of P. R. China, Department of Food Science and Engineering, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, 010018, P. R. China. weiliangxhy@163.com.
authors.forename: Haiyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Dairy Biotechnology and Engineering, Education Ministry of P. R. China, Department of Food Science and Engineering, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, 010018, P. R. China. mhblg@163.com.
authors.forename: Bilige
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Menghe
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Dairy Biotechnology and Engineering, Education Ministry of P. R. China, Department of Food Science and Engineering, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, 010018, P. R. China. hepingdd@vip.sina.com.
authors.forename: Heping
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Dairy Biotechnology and Engineering, Education Ministry of P. R. China, Department of Food Science and Engineering, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, 010018, P. R. China. sunzhihong78@163.com.
authors.forename: Zhihong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases; D005516:Food Microbiology; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D020043:Genes, Essential; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D052197:Limosilactobacillus fermentum / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D008986:Mongolia; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D010802:Phylogeny; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases; C105078:RNA polymerase beta subunit