In the early 1980s, a facultatively anaerobic, non-motile, short rod, designated 202 T , was isolated from a chicken crop and identified as a homofermentative lactic acid bacterium. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that the strain was affiliated with the genus Lactobacillus, clustering within the Lactobacillus acidophilus-delbrueckii group. In this analysis, strain 202 T appeared to be most closely related to the type strains of Lactobacillus intestinalis and Lactobacillus amylolyticus, with gene sequence similarities of 96.1 and 96.2 %, respectively. Strain 202 T was found to differ from these two species, however, when investigated by multilocus sequence analysis, and it also differed in terms of some of its metabolic properties. On the basis of these observations, strain 202 T is considered to represent a novel species in the genus Lactobacillus, for which the name Lactobacillus gigeriorum sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain is 202 T (5CRBIP 24.85

Strains 1517 T and 61D T were characterized by phenotypic and molecular taxonomic methods. These Gram-positive lactic acid bacteria were homo-fermentative, facultatively anaerobic short rods. They were phylogenetically related to the genus Lactobacillus according to 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, with 99 % similarity between strain 1517 T and the type strain of Lactobacillus gigeriorum, and 98.6, 98.5 and 98.4 % between strain 61D T and Lactobacillus gasseri, Lactobacillus taiwanensis and Lactobacillus johnsonii, respectively. Multilocus sequence analysis and metabolic analysis of both strains showed variation between the two strains and their close relatives, with variation in the position of the pheS and rpoA genes. The DNA-DNA relatedness of 43.5 % between strain 1517 T and L. gigeriorum, and 38.6, 29.9 and 39.7 % between strain 61D T and L. johnsonii, L. taiwanensis and L. gasseri, respectively, confirmed their status as novel species. Based on phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, two novel species of Lactobacillus are proposed: Lactobacillus pasteurii sp. nov., with 1517 T (5CRBIP 24.76 T 5DSM 23907 T ) as the type strain, and Lactobacillus hominis sp. nov., with 61D T (5CRBIP 24.179 T 5DSM 23910 T ) as the type strain.The genus Lactobacillus encompasses species and subspecies separated in groups or complexes (Johnson et al., 1980;Fujisawa et al., 1992;Berger et al., 2007;Naser et al., 2007;Hammes & Hertel, 2009). The growing Lactobacillus acidophilus/Lactobacillus delbrueckii complex includes species isolated from different environments such as the intestine of weaning piglets (Konstantinov et al., 2006), a racehorse (Morita et al., 2010), mice, rats or hamsters (Mitsuoka & Fujisawa 1987;Fujisawa et al., 1990), chicken intestine or crop (Mukai et al., 2003;Fujisawa et al., 1992;Cousin et al., 2012) and different parts of the human body (Brygoo & Aladame, 1953;Hansen & Mocquot, 1970;Roos et al., 2005;Fujisawa et al., 1992;Lauer & Kandler, 1980;Falsen et al., 1999), as well as dairy products (Rogosa & Hansen, 1971;Dellaglio et al., 2005;Weiss et al., 1983) and distilled or fermented products (Howey et al., 1990;Nakamura 1981;Vancanneyt et al., 2004;Bohak et al., 1998;Orla-Jensen, 1919;Nakamura & Crowell, 1979;Entani et al., 1986;Wang et al., 2009). Strain 61D T was isolated from intestine of human origin (Gasser, 1970;Gasser & Sebald, 1966), while strain 1517 T was of unknown origin according to the archives of F. Gasser. He isolated and collected these two strains in the early to mid 1960s. They were recently deposited at the CRBIP (Centre de Ressources Biologiques de l'Institut Pasteur). Strain 61D T was originally considered to be closely related to Lactobacillus plantarum, according to its DNA G+C content determined by paper chromatography (43 mol%;Gasser & Sebald, 1966). In an attempt to use the G+C content versus fermentative pathways as keys to classify the genus those authors concluded that there was no homogeneous correlation between the methods. Gasser later showed that the mobility of the l...