Periweissella

Pe.ri.weis.sel'la Gr. prep. peri, about, around or nearby; N.L. fem. dim. n. Weissella, a bacterial genus named after Norbert Weiss, a German microbiologist; N.L. fem. dim. n. Periweissella, a genus about or nearby Weissella. Bacillota / “Bacilli” / Lactobacillales / Lactobacillaceae / Periweissella Periweissella bacteria are closely related to heterofermentative lactobacilli, leuconostoc, furfurilactobacilli, and weissellas, and they ferment glucose to produce lactic acid, acetic acid, and ethanol via the phosphogluconate/phosphoketolase pathway. All Periweissella species have in common that they can produce acid from the sugars N-acetyl glucosamine, cellobiose, esculin, d-glucose, d-mannose, and trehalose. Periweissella cells are Gram-stain-positive, anaerobic, generally short rods with rounded to tapered ends or coccoid shape occurring singly, in pairs or in short chains. Fatty acids predominantly present in all species are C16:0 and C18:1 ω9c. Growth of periweissellas occurs at 15–37°C (optimum 28–30°C), in the presence of 0–4% NaCl (w/v) and at pH values from pH 3.9 to 9.0 (optimum, pH 6.0–7.0). While P. beninensis is confirmed to be motile, data on the motility of the other three Periweissella species (P. ghanensis, P. fabaria, and P. fabalis) known to harbor genes for flagelli are controversial. The genome sizes of the Periweissella species type strains ranged from the smallest for P. beninensis LMG 25373 being 1.83 Mb to the largest for P. cryptocerci 26KH-42 being 3.02 Mb. Both 16S rRNA gene phylogenetic and core genes phylogenomic analyses have shown that the periweissellas cluster between furfurilactobacilli and weissellas and thus represent the link between the coccoid heterofermentative Lactobacillaceae, formerly the Leuconostocaceae, and other heterofermentative Lactobacillaceae. Periweissellas have been mostly isolated from plant or fermented plant materials, while some have been isolated from insects or meat products. DNA G + C content (mol%): 35.5–41. Type species: Periweissella ghanensis Bello et al. 2022VP (basonym: Weissella ghanensis De Bruyne et al. 2008VP).