Genome-based reclassification of Weissella jogaejeotgali as a later heterotypic synonym of Weissella thailandensis

Abstract

Members of the genus Weissella are mostly found in fermented plant material. Among the Weissella species, two species, Weissella thailandensis and Weissella jogaejeotgali, were isolated from foods fermented from marine animals. The two species showed a high level of 16S rRNA gene similarity (99.39 %), whereas they exhibited a moderate level of DNA-DNA hybridization relatedness (63.9 %) in an earlier study. In this study, we determined the whole genome sequence of W. thailandensis KCTC 3751(T) and compared it to those of W. jogaejeotgali FOL01(T) and other related species. The average nucleotide identity value between the type strains of W. thailandensis and W. jogaejeotgali was 96.4 %, which is clearly higher than the cut-off proposed for bacterial species. We, therefore, propose to reclassify W. jogaejeotgali as a later heterotypic synonym of W. thailandensis.