Genome-based reclassification of Weissella jogaejeotgali as a later heterotypic synonym of Weissella thailandensis

Members of the genus Weissella are mostly found in fermented plant material. Among the Weissella species, two species, Weissella thailandensis and Weissella jogaejeotgali , were isolated from foods fermented from marine animals. The two species showed a high level of 16S rRNA gene similarity (99.39 %), whereas they exhibited a moderate level of DNA-DNA hybridization relatedness (63.9 %) in an earlier study. In this study, we determined the whole genome sequence of W. thailandensis KCTC 3751 T and compared it to those of W. jogaejeotgali FOL01 T and other related species. The average nucleotide identity value between the type strains of W. thailandensis and W. jogaejeotgali was 96.4 %, which is clearly higher than the cut-off proposed for bacterial species. We, therefore, propose to reclassify W. jogaejeotgali as a later heterotypic synonym of W. thailandensis .