Taxonomy of lactic acid bacteria from spoiled, vacuum packaged vienna sausages by total soluble protein profiles

To resolve the taxonomic status of sixty-one lactic acid bacteria isolated from spoiled, vacuum packaged vienna sausages, a computer assisted analysis of total soluble protein profiles was undertaken. Sixty-two% of the strains in the study were recovered in fourteen clusters at the 72% similarity level, indicating high degree of heterogeneity among the strains examined. Two clusters representing Leuconostoc species were the largest and most homogeneous, containing twenty strains between them. One cluster contained both typical Lactobacillus saké and Lactobacillus curvatus strains, indicating the inability of protein profiles to consistently differentiate between all strains of these two species. The presence of an independent Lactobacillus curvatus grouping and the clustering of some atypical strains with Lactobacillus saké isolates, however, indicated that the atypical strains may be closely related to Lactobacillus saké.