Holzapfeliella saturejae sp. nov. isolated from flowers of winter savoury Satureja montana L.

A novel strain of the genus <i>Holzapfeliella</i>, named He02^T, was isolated from flowers of <i>Satureja montana</i> L. in a survey for lactic acid bacteria associated with wild and cultivated plants in the metropolitan area of Valencia, Spain. Partial 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed a similarity of 99% to <i>Holzapfeliella floricola</i> DSM 23037^T=Ryu1-2^T. Strain He02^T cells are Gram-stain-positive, catalase-negative non-motile rods, usually occurring in pairs. Cells show a pale yellow pigmentation when pelleted. As <i>H. floricola</i>, strain He02^T utilized a narrow range of carbohydrates, namely, glucose and fructose, homofermentatively. However, genome sequencing and estimation of average nucleotide identity (ANI) revealed an ANI value of 87.44 with <i>H. floricola</i> DSM 23037^T, the only <i>H. floricola</i> strain sequenced to date. A value of 30.5% for digital DNA-DNA hybridization was estimated with the Type Strain Genome Server tool when He02^T was compared with strain DSM 23037^T. These results indicate that strain He02^T constitutes a novel species, for which the name <i>Holzapfeliella saturejae</i> sp. nov. with He02^T (=CECT 31001^T=DSM 117324^T=CCM 9395^T) as type strain is proposed.