After the storm-Perspectives on the taxonomy of Lactobacillaceae

Nanzhen Qiao; Stijn Wittouck; Paola Mattarelli; Jinshui Zheng; Sarah Lebeer; Giovanna E Felis; Michael G Gänzle

doi:10.3168/jdsc.2021-0183

After the storm-Perspectives on the taxonomy of Lactobacillaceae

JDS Commun. 2022 Mar 31;3(3):222-227. doi: 10.3168/jdsc.2021-0183. eCollection 2022 May.

Authors

Nanzhen Qiao¹, Stijn Wittouck², Paola Mattarelli³, Jinshui Zheng⁴, Sarah Lebeer², Giovanna E Felis⁵, Michael G Gänzle¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada T6G 2P5.
² Department of Bioscience Engineering, Research Group Environmental Ecology and Applied Microbiology, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020 Antwerp, Belgium.
³ Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna, Viale Fanin 42, 40127 Bologna, Italy.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
⁵ Department of Biotechnology, Verona University Culture Collection, University of Verona, Strada le Grazie, 15, 37134 Verona, Italy.

Abstract

In 2020, a taxonomic reorganization of the lactic acid bacteria reclassified over 300 species in 7 genera and 2 families into one family, the Lactobacillaceae, with 31 genera including 23 new genera to include organisms formerly classified as Lactobacillus species. This communication aims to provide a debrief on the taxonomic reorganization of lactobacilli to identify shortcomings in the proposed taxonomic framework, and to outline perspectives and opportunities provided by the current taxonomy of the Lactobacillaceae. The current taxonomy of lactobacilli not only necessitates becoming familiar with 23 new genus names but also provides substantial new opportunities in scientific discovery and regulatory approval of these organisms. First, description of new species in the Lactobacillaceae is facilitated and a solid framework for description of novel genera is provided. Second, the current taxonomy greatly enhances the resolution of genus-level sequencing approaches (e.g., 16S rRNA-based metagenomics) when identifying the composition and function of microbial communities. Third, the current taxonomy greatly facilitates the formulation of hypotheses linking phylogeny to metabolism and ecology of lactobacilli.