Genotypic diversity of Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis strains isolated from French organic sourdoughs

• Genotypic characterization of L.sanfranciscensis strains by optimized MLST and PFGE.
• MLST scheme has been re-designed with four genes.
• mapA and pgmA genes were not considered as housekeeping genes.
• Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis strains with various genotypes coexist within sourdough.
• Higher diversity between sourdough than within sourdough was shown.

Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis is the predominant key lactic acid bacterium in traditionally fermented sourdoughs. Despite its prevalence, sourdough and their related breads could be different regarding their physicochemical and sensorial characteristics. The intraspecific diversity of L. sanfranciscensis might explain these observations. Fifty-nine strains isolated from French sourdoughs were typed by a polyphasic approach including Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) and Pulsed-field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE), in order to study their genotypic diversity. MLST scheme can be reduced from six to four gene fragments (gdh, gyrA, nox and pta) without a major loss of discrimination between strains. The genes mapA and pgmA are not good candidates for inclusion in an MLST scheme to type L. sanfranciscensis strains, as they could not be amplified for a set of 18 strains among the 59 studied. This method revealed 20 sequence types (STs). Of these, 19 STs were grouped in one clonal complex, showing a strong relatedness between these strains. PFGE using SmaI discriminated 41 pulsotypes and so distinguished isolates better than the MLST scheme. Both genotypic methods indicate a low diversity between strains isolated from the same sourdough and a higher diversity between strains isolated from different sourdoughs, suggesting an influence of baker practices and/or environmental conditions on the selection of strains. The use of these two methods targeting genetic variations gives an optimal genotypic characterization of L.sanfranciscensis strains.