Reclassification of Lactobacillus ferintoshensis as a later heterotypic synonym of Lactobacillus parabuchneri

Lactobacillus ferintoshensis has recently been described as a novel species, distinct from its close phylogenetic neighbours Lactobacillus buchneri, Lactobacillus kefiri and Lactobacillus hilgardii. Two highly related species with validly published names, Lactobacillus parakefiri and Lactobacillus parabuchneri, were not considered in the study due to the lack of 16S rRNA gene sequence data at that time. Since the publication of the study, the sequences have become available and have revealed that L. ferintoshensis and L. parabuchneri share 99.7% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity. Further genomic and phenotypic data, derived from fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism, DNA-DNA hybridization and API 50 CHL analyses, have demonstrated that the species are synonymous.