Apilactobacillus Zheng & Wittouck & Salvetti & Franz & Harris & Mattarelli & O'Toole & Pot & Vandamme & Walter & Watanabe & Wuyts & Felis & Gänzle & Lebeer 2020, GEN. NOV.

DESCRIPTION OF APILACTOBACILLUS GEN. NOV.

Apilactobacillus (A.pi.lac.to.ba.cil'lus. L. fem. n. apis bee; N.L. masc. n. Lactobacillus a bacterial genus name; N.L. masc. n. Apilactobacillus a lactobacillus from bees).

Gram positive, rod-shaped, heterofermentative. Growth is generally observed in the range of 15–37 °C; many strains grow at acidic conditions below pH 3.0. Strains in the genus have small genomes ranging from 1.42 Mbp for Apilactobacillus kosoi to 1.58 Mbp for Apilactobacillus quenuiae; the mol% G+C content of DNA ranges from 30.5 to 36.4. All strains in the genus convert fructose to mannitol; strains in the genus typically ferment very few carbohydrates including the pollen and bee-associated carbohydrates fructose, glucose, and sucrose but not maltose or pentoses. Comparable to Fructilactobacillus, Apilactobacillus has an insect-associated lifestyle and occurs on flowers, which serve as hub for dispersal of lactobacilli, and insects [320]. In contrast to Fructilactobacillus, Apilactobacillus has adapted to bees including honeybees (A. apinorum, A. kunkeei) and wild bees (A. timberlakei, A. micheneri, A. quenuiae). In the bee and bumblebee gut, Apilactobacillus is associated with its homofermentative sister genus Bombilactobacillus.

A phylogenetic tree on the basis of 16S rRNA genes of all species in the genus Apilactobacillus is provided in Figure S6R.

The type species of the genus is Apilactobacillus kunkeei comb. nov. Apilactobacilus was previously referred to as L. kunkeei group.