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Lactic acid bacteria from "terasi" shrimp paste, a highly popular fermented seafood in Indonesia were isolated and characterized. Viable cell counts were 10(4) to 10(6) cfu/g on MRS medium. All the isolates were catalase-negative, gram-positive cocci and were able to grow at 15% NaCl. Numerical phenotypic analysis showed that the isolates clustered into one group. However, they could be classified into two types: the Tetragenococcus halophilus group and the T. muriaticus group as revealed by a restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis and sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. This study is the first to show that both species of Tetragenococcus are distributed in Indonesian fermented foods.

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Aims: To investigate the effects of the salt concentration, incubation temperature and initial pH of the medium on the fermentative ability of the halophilic lactic acid bacteria, Tetragenococcus muriaticus and T. halophilus. Method and Results: The growth, lactic acid production and pH reduction ability of five strains of T. muriaticus and T. halophilus in MRS broth medium under various culture conditions such as salt concentration (3, 7, 15 and 23% NaCl), temperature (20, 30 and 40°C), and initial medium pH (5AE8, 6AE5 and 7AE5) were investigated. Those of T. halophilus were seriously affected by a high salinity (23% NaCl); in contrast, those of T. muriaticus were affected by a low initial pH (5AE8). Conclusions:The results indicate that high saline concentrations and low pH values have significant impact on the growth, lactic acid production and pH reduction ability of T. halophilus and T. muriaticus, respectively. Significance and Impact of the Study: This study appears to be important in biopreservation during the manufacture of fermented food products. Both T. muriaticus and T. halophilus may support each other in reducing pH in hypersaline or low pH environment. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the fermentation ability of T. muriaticus.