Differentiation ofLactobacillus spp. isolated from Chinese sourdoughs by AFLP and classical methods

Abstract

TwentyLactobacillus strains isolated from sourdoughs that were used as starters for Chinese steamed bread were characterised by amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and classical methods. Twenty strains were divided into five clusters with AFLP profiles using similarity coefficient 0.60 (Jaccard coefficient) as a cut-off point, while three bio-clusters were formed with a numerical taxonomy classification based on phenotypic features, at a similarity level of 0.80 (Jaccard coefficient) and an average linkage algorithm (UPGMA) of clustering. A good correlation was observed between the two methods. The results suggested that the AFLP method is a useful taxonomic tool for typing of LAB, and the combination of the two methods may lead to obtain an improved understanding of the relationship between the phenotype and genotype of theLactobacillus spp. from the sourdough.