A Gram-stain-positive, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming, catalase-negative, urease-negative, homofermentative and facultatively anaerobic strain, named WILCCON 0076T, was isolated from a wild ferment of pieces of a 'Kampung' durian fruit collected on the island of Ubin (Pulau Ubin), Singapore. The durian had fallen to the ground from a durian tree (Durio zibethinus), on which a group of long-tailed macaques had been observed picking and eating the fruits. Comparative analyses of 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that WILCCON 0076T potentially represented a novel species within the genus Ligilactobacillus, with the most closely related type strain being Ligilactobacillus agilis DSM 20509T (16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 97.2 %). Average nucleotide identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization prediction values were only 86.0% and 18.9 %, respectively. On the basis of the results of a polyphasic approach that included phylogenomic, chemotaxonomic and morphological analyses, we propose a novel species with the name Ligilactobacillus ubinensis sp. nov. (type strain WILCCON 0076T=DSM 114293T=LMG 32698T).
Keywords: Durio zibethinus; Ligilactobacillus ubinensis sp. nov; Singapore; fermented durian; lactobacilli.