ORIGINAL PAPER Oenococcus alcoholitolerans sp. nov., a lactic acid bacteria isolated from cachac ¸a and ethanol fermentation processes Fernanda Badotti • Ana Paula B. Moreira • Luciane A. Chimetto Tonon • Brı ´gida T. Luckwu de Lucena • Fa ´tima de Ca ´ssia O. Gomes • Ricardo Kruger • Cristiane C. Thompson • Marcos Antonio de Morais Jr. • Carlos A. Rosa • Fabiano L. Thompson Received: 24 March 2014 / Accepted: 30 September 2014 / Published online: 15 October 2014 Ó Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014 Abstract Four strains of lactic acid bacteria isolated from cachac ¸a and alcohol fermentation vats in Brazil were characterised in order to determine their taxo- nomic position. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that they belong to the genus Oenococcus and should be distinguished from their closest neighbours. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity against the type strains of the other two species of the genus was below 94.76 % (Oenococcus kitaharae) and 94.62 % (Oeno- coccus oeni). The phylogeny based on pheS gene sequences also confirmed the position of the new taxon. DNA–DNA hybridizations based on in silico genome-to-genome comparison, Average Amino Acid Identity, Average Nucleotide Identity and Karlin genomic signature confirmed the novelty of the taxon. Distinctive phenotypic characteristics are the ability to metabolise sucrose but not trehalose. The name Oenococcus alcoholitolerans sp. nov. is proposed for this taxon, with the type strain UFRJ-M7.2.18 T ( = CBAS474 T = LMG27599 T ). In addition, we have determined a draft genome sequence of the type strain. Keywords Oenococcus alcoholitolerans Á Cachac ¸a Á Ethanol Á Genomic taxonomy Introduction Brazil is currently the world major producer of ethanol derived from sugar cane. The Organization of the Fernanda Badotti and Ana Paula B. Moreira have contributed equally to this work. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10482-014-0296-z) contains supple- mentary material, which is available to authorized users. F. Badotti (&) Á C. A. Rosa Departamento de Microbiologia, Instituto de Cie ˆncias Biolo ´gicas (ICB), Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, C.P. 486, Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil e-mail: fbadotti@cebio.org A. P. B. Moreira Á L. A. C. Tonon Á C. C. Thompson Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 21941-599, Brazil e-mail: anapaulabm@biologia.ufrj.br B. T. L. de Lucena Centro de Cie ˆncias Biolo ´gicas e Sociais Aplicadas, Universidade Estadual da Paraı ´ba, Joa ˜o Pessoa, Brazil F. C. O. Gomes Departamento de Quı ´mica, Centro Federal de Educac ¸a ˜o Tecnolo ´gica de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil R. Kruger Laborato ´rio de Enzimologia, Departamento de Biologia Celular, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade de Brası ´lia, Brası ´lia, Brazil M. A. de Morais Jr. Departamento de Gene ´tica, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil 123 Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (2014) 106:1259–1267 DOI 10.1007/s10482-014-0296-z