Taxonomic Study of the Lactobacillus acidophilus Group, with Recognition of Lactobacillus gallinarum sp. nov. and Lactobacillus johnsonii sp. nov. and Synonymy of Lactobacillus acidophilus Group A3 (Johnson et al. 1980) with the Type Strain of Lactobacillus amylovorus (Nakamura 1981)

Biochemical properties and DNA-DNA reassociation studies of Lactobacillus acidophilus strains isolated from humans and animals indicate that these include six genomospecies. Two new species can be differentiated from the established species of the genus Lactobacillus: L. gallinarum sp. nov. (type strain, ATCC 33199) and L. johnsonii sp. nov. (type strain, ATCC 33200). Furthermore, it was clarified that L. acidophilus group A3 (Johnson et al. 1980) is synonymous with L. amylovorus.