3. Results and discussion
3.1. Identification of the isolate
The studied strain produced yellow pigment in BHI agar, microscopy observation revealed Gram-positive cocci arranged in pairs or short chain, displayed pyrrolidonyl aminopeptidase activity but no catalase activity, showed the ability to grow at 10 and 45 °C, in media containing 6.5 g/100 ml NaCl, at pH 9.6, and in BEA medium; all features were in agreement with the genus Enterococcus. Further biochemical test suggested by Manero and Blanch (1999) allowed classifying the strain as E. mundtii.
Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence (1396 bp) was performed. The fragment of the 16S rRNA gene amplified from strain E. mundtii Tw56 exhibited 100% homology with respect to E. mundtii ATCC 43186 and the entire sequence was deposited in the GenBank database under the accession number KC346258.