Three Gram-positive-staining strains isolated from fermented stinky tofu brine were rod-shaped, non-motile, asporogenous, facultatively anaerobic, heterofermentative and did not exhibit catalase activity. Comparative analyses of 16S rRNA, rpoA and pheS gene sequences demonstrated that the novel strains were members of the genus Lactobacillus. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, the type strains of Lactobacillus collinoides (98.6 %), Lactobacillus paracollinoides (98.6 %) and Lactobacillus similis (99.6 %) were the closest neighbours. However, DNA-DNA reassociation values with these strains were less than 10 %. The phenotypic and genotypic features demonstrated that these isolates represent a novel species of the genus Lactobacillus, for which the name Lactobacillus odoratitofui sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIT 11304 T (5JCM 15043 T 5BCRC 17810 T 5DSM 19909 T ).Stinky tofu is made by immersing tofu in fermented stinky brine, thus permeating the tofu with the odour of the brine. The fermented brine used for stinky tofu production is from the liquid part of decomposed raw materials, such as various vegetables or animal proteins (shrimp or fish). Samples of fermented stinky brines were obtained in May 2005 from a factory in Taipei County, Taiwan, and analysed as described previously (Chao et al., 2008b). During a study on the biodiversity of lactic acid bacteria in stinky tofu brines, three of the Lactobacillus strains [S-4-5 (5YIT 11304 T ), S-4-6 and S-4-7] isolated could not be clearly placed within any recognized species of the genus by means of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity. Levels of DNA-DNA relatedness also separated the strains from existing related species.This study presents the morphological, biochemical and molecular characterization of strain YIT 11304 T . L. collinoides YIT 0263 T , L. paracollinoides YIT 10360 T and L.similis YIT 12117 T were obtained from the culture collection of Yakult Central Institute (YIT; Tokyo, Japan) and were used as reference strains. The strains used for further experiments were cultivated and maintained in MRS broth (BD, Difco; pH 6.8) (de Man et al., 1960) at 30 u C for 1 or 2 days, unless indicated otherwise.Chromosomal DNA used as a template for 16S rRNA, rpoA and pheS gene sequence amplification was prepared from the isolates according to the method of Watanabe et al. (2008). The conditions for PCR amplification of the partial 16S rRNA gene and subsequent DNA sequencing have been described previously (Chao et al., 2008a). The rpoA and pheS gene sequences for strains YIT 11304 T and L. similis YIT 12117T were amplified by PCR with primers rpoA-F2 (59-GTGGATGGCGTYGTWGARGA-39) and rpoA-R2 (59-TTGATTGAACCRTTWGTCCAAA-39) (Chao et al., 2009), and pheS-21-F (59-CAYCCNGCHCGYGAYATGC-39) and pheS-23-R (59-GGRTGRACCATVCCNGCHCC-39) (Naser et al., 2005), respectively. The PCR mixture (25 ml) contained 10 mM Tris/HCl (pH 8.3), 50 mM KCl, 200 mM of each dNTP, 1 mM MgCl 2 , 1 mg BSA, 0.5 U Taq DNA polymerase (Takara Bio), 0.1 mM each primer and 10 ng t...