Deoxyribonucleic Acid Homologies of Lactobacillus jensenii, Lactobacillus leichmannii, and Lactobacillus acidophilus

Abstract

Labeled [3H]deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from Lactobacillus jensenii ATCC 25258 yielded a substantial amount of heteroduplexes only with DNA molecules from other strains of L. jensenii. A low yield of heteroduplexing was obtained between DNAs of L. jensenii and L. acidophilus, although both species had the same guanine plus cytosine content (36 mol%). The striking phenotypic similarity between L. jensenii and L. leichmannii was not reflected in their DNA base composition (36 and 50 mol% guanine plus cytosine, respectively), and, as expected, they produced a very low yield of hybridized DNAs. Although the phylogenic relationship between these different species of Lactobacillus cannot be deduced from their DNA relatedness, it can nevertheless be established from the structural similarity of their D-lactic dehydrogenases.